Changes
by Tyna
Summary: YAY! UPDATED! Change is inevitable, but with most things from Manticore, change has a whole different meaning. MA
1. Changing Circumstances

Changes: Part One - Changing Circumstances  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).   
  
SUMMARY: Change is inevitable, but with most things from Manticore, change has a whole different meaning. M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiya@mauimail.com  
  
NOTES: This is a repost of my first attempt at a non - Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will  
  
Manticore forgot to mention a few things to us kids but I guess those were on a 'need to know' basis. Not like they treated us as living breathing beings with minds of our own anyway.  
  
Damn Manticore, damn this rain, damn Alec for being away, and damn me for caring. He's the only one who understands exactly what I'm going through right now. Not only do I have to worry about being something other that human, but add this "mutating" factor in and it seems too much to handle.  
  
But, you won't see me crack. I will NOT crack. I felt my claws slip their sheathes and look down at my hands. A small amount of blood trickled down my hand from the cuticles. I also didn't need a mirror to know that my eyes no longer had any whites but were twin pools of glowing yellow.  
  
Calm, I needed to be calm now. High atop the space needle I tilted my face to the pouring rain with closed eyes. My mind emptied of all thought and I dipped into that place in my mind where nothing can harm me. To the din of white noise I felt everything shift back to normal...  
  
Normal! He's gonna kill me if I don't get to work. With Alec gone we're short-handed by three. Flying down the stairs of the Needle, I moved as if the terrain dictated the placement of hands and feet. At the last turn the exit finally pulled into view. In my haste I accidentally ripped the door off its hinges. Under a small overhang my beloved motorcycle waited patiently.  
  
The sight of her made me smile and relax. Only my 'cycle gave me unfettered freedom. She came to life underneath me and I purred with her. Ever faster, the wind whipped the rain into my face, driving the droplets until they felt like mini daggers but I didn't care. So lost in the feel of freedom I almost forgot about the sector gates and skidded to a halt, inches before smacking into the bumper of a dirt-encrusted car.  
  
One, two...oh crap! Ten cars ahead and my beeper buzzed like a bitch. Quickly I glanced down at the number but it wasn't the pay phone at Jampony. It's the number at Crash: what the hell?  
  
The line wasn't moving so I flipped my backpack to the front and rummaged for my cell phone and a scrambler chip I picked up one day while doing a B&E at the rich sector. Throwing my 'cycle into neutral I assembled the two and dialed the number flashing insistently on my hip.  
  
After two rings I the line clicked as the connection was established. "It's your dollar, speak," I told whoever is on the line before they even have a chance to say 'hello'.  
  
"Max?"  
  
My heart sped up until I could hardly breath around it. His voice rumbled in my ear and it seemed like music from heaven although I'd be damned if I knew why.  
  
"Alec? What the hell are you paging me for? I'm late to work, drenched and still dealing with the shit that's been happening lately without any help from you. So, if you are calling just to harass me, you'll be wasting your breath. Well, speak up. I can hear you breathing..."  
  
"Max, shut up and listen for once," he said and I actually did. "Normal called off work because he doesn't want to pay any sick leave if we continue to deliver in the rain. Now get your ass over to Crash and we can go over some things I learned while I was away."  
  
The line went dead without so much as a goodbye. "Son of a bitch!" I whispered, not half as angry as I made out to be. Curiosity, something that may get me killed one day, floated through my thoughts, filling the time it took to get through the sector check.  
  
By the time I arrived at Crash, Original Cindy and the gang were three quarters through their third pitcher of beer. Alec was the first person to notice me. He had a pair of dark sunglasses on, completely out of place for the dim lighting of Crash but I understood their necessity. Strong emotions seemed to trigger our changes and he needed the cover in case some hot chick got him all riled up.   
  
This time however, he was alone. I watched him knock back the last of his beer and rise to meet me. By now OC yelled a 'hey girl' and Sketchy gave his usual 'Sup'. I turned to them and said, "hey," but I could see Alec out of the corner of my eye.   
  
He moved as if his cat genes were taking over, like he had muscles in places where there shouldn't be. His leather jerkin stretched tight across his generous chest. I could hear it creak in protest to movement over the noise that regularly bombarded Crash and wondered if tales of men smelling a thousand times better in leather were true.   
  
I stopped that train of though so fast I missed OC's comment on Normal's decision and had to ask her to repeat it. I knew that I wasn't anywhere near a heat cycle so, why would the notion of Alec in tight leather anything excite me? What the hell's going on?  
  
"You a'right boo?" OC grabbed my arm and I focused in on her face.   
  
"Yeah, yeah, just cold and thirsty. You got any left for a girl in need," I pointed to her beer and pouted a little. I put on an ironclad mask of nonchalance and settled in next to Cindy about the time Alec reached our table.  
  
"Can I help you," I asked giving him bored eyes.  
  
"You, me talk now," he said in clipped phrases. He radiated anxiety and the baby fine hairs along my spine tingled in response. I wasn't the only one feeling out of sorts.  
  
I knew I shouldn't let his demeanor affect me but my self-control seemed as unpredictable as my thoughts today. "Articulate aren't we," I scoffed and realized that his self-control may be less tenuous than mine. The muscles in his jaw danced and I had a split second to think 'how dangerously handsome he looked'.   
  
Suddenly I am completely lifted off the ground; my shirt balled into his fists. He moved too fast for me to react. 'Great going Max', I chided myself and tried to breath around the pulse in my throat.   
  
  
  
Shouts and cheers erupted around us but all I could really hear was the blood rushing in my ears. I finally shook the shock of being attacked, brought both feet up against his chest and kicked outward.  
  
Thanks to genetically enhanced reflexes Alec retained his balance but the force of my blow put some distance between us. Alec tried to hold onto my shirt and shredded it. It was a good thing I decided to go with a sports bra today. With a little shimmy the pieces fell to the floor. Luckily my barcode remained hidden by my hair.   
  
Alec's glasses slipped downward and I watched those blue eyes disappear into glowing yellow orbs. So far I was the only one to notice, I think, and the fury within them touched something inside. I was beyond pissed and knew if I looked into those eyes any longer, I would change too. We had to get somewhere private quickly or people would start to ask questions.  
  
The only place I could think of was the men's bathroom and only because it was the closest. Banking on the assumption that he'd follow me I maneuvered around the crowd and ducked through the bathroom doors. It was empty, thank God. Sure enough, Alec stormed in and locked the doors behind him. His movements became painfully slow, as if he had to concentrate extra hard to do them.  
  
Pent up anger washed over me in a shifting wave taking my eyes and hands with it. I didn't wait for him to turn around. My claws dug into the fabric of his jerkin as I attempted to throw him across the room. He spun on his heel and threw himself into the motion, taking control of the maneuver.  
  
We tumbled to the floor in a jumble of legs and slashing claws, glowing eyes locked onto each other. Somehow I managed to free a hand. Closing my fist tight I drove my knuckles into side of his face, using our momentum to hit as hard as possible. He rolled with the punch and away from me, cradling his cheek. Blood spilled out of the corner of his mouth. His expression was hard to read but his eyes reverted to normal. I think he was confused.  
  
"Alec! What the hell is wrong with you?! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't bust your ass and personally hand you over to White!" Okay I really didn't mean the last part but at the moment I wasn't in complete control of myself.  
  
"Heat," he said through clenched teeth.  
  
"I am NOT in heat," I yelled.  
  
"Not you. Me," he said haltingly and spat blood onto the floor.  
  
Stunned silence lasted a few heartbeats. At first I didn't believe him, but I couldn't deny that he showed all the signs: flushed skin, eyes (when they were normal) dilated, his scent overpowered by musk with an undertone that was entirely his. That would explain the thrill of excitement earlier when I watched him move - pheromones. My mind raced with questions and I had a hard time trying to single one out; I wanted to ask them all at once.  
  
"No Max, stay where you are." He back peddled until his back was pressed firmly against one of the stalls, his voice filled with something close to panic. "I didn't believe the research notes but don't come any closer, please."  
  
It was the please that cooled my anger completely. Alec never said please. Wait a minute, I don't remember moving. "What research notes," I asked to cover my confusion and sat where I stopped. Maybe if we stuck to business things would return to some semblance of normal. After a few deep breaths I shifted back and pulled my knees up to my chest, waiting.  
  
"Not here." He began to rock slightly.  
  
"You asked me here remember," I growled, annoyed more than angry.  
  
He whimpered softly and closed his eyes. "Don't do that," he demanded.  
  
"What?" my voice rumbled with the beginnings of anger.  
  
"That," he growled back.  
  
"What are you talking about?" I snarled, quickly getting tired of this game.  
  
"As if you didn't know. You are purring." His eyes fixated on my mouth and throat. It made me realize he was right.  
  
I was. "Shit Alec! What did you do to me?" I needed to be away from him and now. I may not be in heat but I was reacting to his.  
  
"Don't blame this on me. Manticore made me made us remember? I will tell you what's going on. I thought I could do it today but now that I know the notes are accurate you need to give me a week." He was already up unlocking the doors and halfway out before I realized he had moved.  
  
"One week, your place!" I screamed at him as he left. I didn't get an answer but I really didn't need one. We were going to talk then even if I had to tie him down and beat it out of him.   
  
So deep in thought I didn't realize OC had come in. She touched my cheek to get my attention. "Your boy just flew outta here like a bat outta hell. You gonna break it down for Original Cindy?"  
  
"Yeah boo, just get me home first. And boo..."  
  
"Yeah girl?"  
  
"He's not my boy."  
  
~~~One week later~~~  
  
It was raining, again. Actually it hadn't stopped raining since that day at Crash. For the most part it was a thick sheet of mist but there were times when it pounded into earth. Normal made us go back to work but he sprung for some serious rain gear calling them "investments". If you asked me, it was more like saving his ass.  
  
My last delivery took me by Alec's place so I figured to kill two birds with one stone. I still needed answers and pretty boy had been avoiding me like the Plague, taking every remote delivery so he could to be away. I guess I couldn't really blame him. Going soft? Nah.   
  
I knocked on the door and schooled my features into a polite business face. No one answered. I called it in to Normal. "Yeah, a no show. So can I blaze or what?" I asked impatiently already headed for Alec's floor.   
  
"Yeah, yeah just do it first thing or don't bother coming in," Normal threatened and I smiled.   
  
Wow not much of a fight I must be wearing him down, I thought, and cut the line as I reached Alec's door. "Alec, time's up. Let me in," I called loudly and pounded on the door, no answer déjà vu. Grumbling inwardly, I extracted my pick set to let myself in. These older locks were no challenge at all, I thought absently while I worked with the 5-step tumbler mechanism. I caught the faint click as the last step shifted and shouldered the door open.   
  
Heavy musk scent slammed into me like a physical blow and I nearly tripped over a pile of clothes. Even breathing shallow didn't help. I dropped into a crouch switching to combat mode and welcomed the adrenaline rush that came with shape shifting. Gold light caressed the edges of my vision as they changed to what I began to call my 'cat vision'. Shadows disappeared becoming crystal clear. I could now see temperature differences and track the thermal after images of his footsteps.  
  
He had gone through the entire apartment. Most of the furniture bore claw marks. One of the couch pillows was entirely shredded. Broken plates littered the kitchen floor. His television screen was splattered with dried blood. Concentric spider web cracks radiated from the middle where the blood was at its thickest, like someone had punched it.  
  
"Alec?" I called and followed the fresher footprints to the bathroom. I had a sense of movement and heard the door protest as he leaned against it.   
  
"Max, get the hell out!" His voice was deeper than normal, tight and controlled with a touch of desperation.  
  
"Not until you tell me what you found out!" I shot back and added my weight to the door. His scent thickened suddenly and swirled around me in a heady cloud. Shit!   
  
"You can't be here right now," he insisted, the desperation upped another notch.  
  
"Look, I don't give a damn if you have company. Send her home and get your ass out here! You owe me an explanation."  
  
"Not that it's any of your business, but no one's here. No one's been here." Anger crept into his tone. That I was used to that I could deal with.  
  
"Get off it Alec. Have you seen this place or were you just too wrapped up into who you were doing?" A flash of jealousy caused my heart to skip a beat. Frowning I pushed away from the door fighting to get myself under control. Where it had that come from, I pondered and re-explored the living room.  
  
He was right. I focused into detecting another set of thermal footprints but failed to come up with anything. As I passed the couch a white cotton baby tee peaking out of a blanket draped over the top caught my attention. Both looked very familiar. I picked them up and breathed in deeply. Alec's scent permeated the fibers but there, very faint, was my own.  
  
Curiosity short-circuited the explosion of rage I felt building in my chest. Mix in confusion and desire with a pinch of pure lust and you could come close to what I was feeling. Mind numb, I sat down on the couch clutching the blanket and shirt close to me.  
  
"Max?"  
  
I looked up to see Alec leaning against the kitchen counter as far away from me as he could manage in this room. Seeing him reestablished the fact that I was 'rip you a new one' mad.  
  
"You should have stayed in the bathroom," I said in a deadly calm tone and launched off the couch, blanket and shirt still in hand.   
  
He was ready and caught me midair by the waist, his grip steel tight. There was a brief pause, as if he were debating what to do. In deft, blurred movements he snatched the loose end of the blanket and flipped me up like a flapjack. When he caught me again I was wrapped so tight I could barely breathe. I couldn't unsheathe my claws either. He held me, back to him, with both arms.   
  
The feeling of helpless never sat well with me. I arched backward and used my legs as a counterbalance. He outclassed me in raw strength, solidified his position by tightening his stomach muscles and wrapped his legs around mine. I called him every name I could think of and tried to struggle. Truth was that the feel of his body on mine seemed so right that I found myself wanting to snuggle in further.  
  
"Let me GO!" I screamed and wiggled hard enough to challenge his balance.   
  
"No! You won't hear me out if I do and we'll fight. My apartment has sustained enough casualties, thank you very much." He had adjusted his hold on my arms and rested his chin on my head. It was both annoying and intriguing.  
  
"Fine, start talking and it had better be good or else..." I let the threat die since I could hardly enforce it. He didn't move or speak for a while. Through the blanket I felt his heartbeat slow, his breathing level out. "Hey, you still awake back there?"  
  
No answer; must me my day for those. I gave an experimental wiggle and felt his muscles tighten but it seemed like a reflex response.  
  
"Ask me why this feels right," he said into my hair.  
  
"What?" My mind went blank for a moment as his breath raked across my ear. I could not have said anything out loud could I? Frantically I rewound the last few minutes in my head and confirmed that I hadn't said anything. "How did..."  
  
"Just ask me," he reiterated and almost sounded bored.  
  
"Okay, okay I'm asking."  
  
At the end of the first half-hour my body began to protest being bound for so long. Essentially Alec just finished telling me that his heat was my fault. I almost laughed myself into a fit of hiccups.  
  
"So it boils down to what Alec. Stop dancing around with technical terms and give it to me straight," I growled more for myself than to show annoyance. He had been rubbing his face in my hair the whole time and it was beginning to get distracting.  
  
"And stop doing that. I am not your touchstone."  
  
Amazingly he did as if he hadn't realized what he was doing it. "Manticore re-coded your DNA to trigger our changes when you were recaptured. We were slated to become their search and destroy team, a team who could track and kill without any technical assistance. With our animal appearances the incidents would be tagged as attacks by surrounding wildlife."  
  
I shook my head not wanting to hear this. Yeah, I know I asked but still, the truth usually hurts. "But that means you had to be re-coded at the same time." He nodded against my head.   
  
He released me so suddenly I fell to the ground. "When they sent me in to be your breeding partner, our scents imprinted on each other's sub-consciousness. They wanted an inseparable team for efficiency's sake but didn't want the female to be burdened by young. They encoded a female's heat cycle into my sequence to cancel out yours but I think they miscalculated."  
  
"Miscalculated?"  
  
"It was only supposed to activate if you were in heat yet this started before I came back into town. The only comfort I get from this constant heat was to have something of yours," he hissed and yanked the blanket away from me. "Original Cindy let it slip that you kept this stuff in your locker so I stole them in order to function without thinking of you twenty-four-seven."   
  
"Will it stop?" was the only intelligent thought that came to mind. Everything else bordered on obscene. I had to get out of here fast or I'd start to quicken to his heat again.   
  
"I hope so, Max, I really do," he groaned and bolted to his room. The door slammed in my face before I could follow. "Show yourself out, Max." His voice was thick with anger and tears.  
  
Tears? Big tough-guy Alec doesn't cry. "I'm not leaving, Alec. We need to fix this." I was yelling to get through the door but I couldn't keep anger from tainting my tone. I usually don't like it when things don't make sense, especially after the explanation.  
  
"Suit yourself. I'm going to bed," he yelled back.  
  
"At five in the afternoon?"  
  
"Max, shut up, get out or make yourself at home. I don't give a damn, but for today this conversation is over."   
  
And then there was silence. Tears sprang to my eyes and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I wanted to cry. Confused and somewhat hurt I picked my way back to the couch, settled in and cried myself to sleep. 


	2. Changing Realities

Changes: Part Two - Changing Realities  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).   
  
SUMMARY: Can dreams change things? Some do, but for better or for worse who can tell. Max has a dream or does she? M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiya@mauimail.com  
  
NOTES: My first attempt at a non - Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will  
  
The temperature outside dropped some time during the night. I was shivering so much my teeth began chatter. I groped for the clothes lying around the couch and nested. I fell back asleep warm and surrounded by Alec's scent.   
  
*****  
  
It had been a bad day. The temporary cure had expired and I felt so lost after Logan's 'I love you Max.' I heard the words but it sounded more like goodbye.  
  
The world narrowed down and I sunk into the depths of sadness. I was drowning in tears and didn't notice or care to notice nightfall. Cold wind raced across ocean surface and lashed around my body. If I had had any breath left the wind would have stolen it.  
  
My head suddenly snapped around from the force of an open-handed slap. It shocked me into taking a deep breath. A little dazed, I turned back and looked up. I knew it wasn't Logan, but his face superimposed over the features of the body standing beside me.  
  
Unbridled rage robbed me of all conscious thought. Primitive sounds spilled from my mouth as I bared my teeth in a feral grimace and a red haze colored my vision. I let my Manticore training take over not realized I had also triggered the 'change'.   
  
"Good Max, let it out," he called but I barely registered that the voice wasn't Logan's. Not that it mattered. I heard the edge of fear and became excited. Fear meant I hurt him and hurting him was good.  
  
We moved like dancers in perfect step, kicks synchronically choreographed to the other's hits. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my fingers, I instinctively slashed at him with my newly emerged claws. The scenery blurred and I wasn't paying attention. He was forcing me to make rash decisions and took full advantage of a momentary loss of balance.  
  
His arm connected solidly to my midsection and wrapped around my waist. Without much effort he lifted me off the ground and over his shoulder. Sheathing my claws, I screamed at him wordlessly and pounded my fists into his back. As a last resort I bit his shoulder blade hard enough to draw blood.  
  
Thick clawed, fingers closed about the scruff of my neck and wrenched me backward. I stared into his glowing eyes and spat blood in his face. "I HATE YOU LOGAN!" I screamed.  
  
A bass rumble cut through the violence in my mind. It vibrated through my body and calmed my frantic heart. When it stopped, I could finally see. Alec's eyes bled back to normal and held mine as he said very slowly without malice, "I am not Logan."  
  
"I know." My voice cracked with fresh tears.  
  
"You do realize I owe you an ass-kicking for letting you beat me up?" He half smiled because the other side of his face was swollen and purple.  
  
"Put it on my tab," I whispered and slumped against his chest. My body had finally given up. I was vaguely aware that he carried me the entire distance to the apartment OC and I shared.  
  
Soft warm hands gently wrapped my shaking fingers in strips of cloth. Uncommon nausea swept away any of my attempts to get up. Chills raced along my spine and I felt my body begin to spasm. Before blackness overtook me, I was pulled into solid warmth that steadied me down to the core.   
  
"Boy, she's finally calm. Tomorrow she won't remember a thing, trust me on that one, and I want it to stay that way. Don't tell anyone, not even her or you and Sketch will be known as pool buddies in a whole new light. Do I make myself clear..." OC's voice started to fade.  
  
And then I could hear nothing.  
  
*****  
  
Three things always bothered me in the morning. My pager was equipped with an alarm. It was the most obnoxious sound I'd ever heard and it didn't quit until I personally turned it off. Sunlight never was my friend and it was especially bright this morning. The final item on my 'I hate the morning' hit list was my transgenic metabolism. Between the three I was pulled out of a very deep sleep. After that dream last night I was glad to be back in reality.  
  
For a moment I couldn't see and blinked rapidly to clear the thin film that covered my eyes. My face felt puffy from too much crying and my body felt like it had been abused - so much for transgenic super healing. Alec's bedroom door was still closed, big surprise there.   
  
He did say 'make yourself at home' so I figured he wouldn't mind me raiding the fridge. I padded over to the icebox and prayed that his metabolism forced him to keep it full. Milk? The only thing he kept in the fridge was milk. It was so absurd I couldn't stop the bark of laughter from escaping my lips. Sound carried very well in this apartment and I looked back to see if I had woken Alec.  
  
No one came barging out demanding why I was making enough noise to wake the dead. Relieved I scanned his freezer for anything edible. I guess I was expecting too much. Alec was male, by the way of soldier, male and wouldn't cook to save his life, hence the empty freezer.  
  
Irrational anger spurred on by hunger burned flash-fire hot. Pain lanced up my arms when my claws burst into view. Blood flew, making an interesting pattern down the side of the refrigerator. I gulped back the roar of frustration I felt tickling my throat and searched his cabinets for some paper towels.   
  
"Pay dirt," I whispered, completely forgetting about the towels when I came across an entire shelf of cereal, something very hard to come by. Alec must still be using his network of contacts he established while in Manticore as an outside operative. Milk in the fridge made little more sense, but speaking from experience he should also have protein on hand. I gave the fridge a once over, raking my claws over the yellowing porcelain surface.  
  
"Sonuvabitch," I hissed in appreciation when one claw brushed over a minute seam. I picked at the seam for a few minutes until it gave. After a quick double check to see that Alec's door was still closed, I peeled back the seal. Steak, another very rare, expensive commodity, was hidden in the concealed compartment.  
  
Somebody had definitely been a busy boy. I snagged the uppermost slab, shut the door quietly and tiptoed around broken dishes to his stove. At first glance I was highly doubtful it worked but the pilot burned steadily under the first burner. He even had a pan under the sink. Perhaps today wouldn't suck as bad as last night, I hoped.  
  
Impatient to be fed I simply seared the steak on both sides until it was hot and removed it from the fire. The smell was driving me nuts but I took the time to turn off the stove. Rummaging through another set of cabinets yielded a plate, fork and knife. I was all but drooling by the time I sat back down in the nest I'd made on Alec's couch.  
  
I was able to think more clearly after the first few bites. The coffee table appeared to be the only piece of furniture left untouched by Alec's heat tantrum. It was covered with charts, graphs and various scientific journals bearing Manticore logos. Last week at Crash Alec had mentioned research notes but I never expected this much. Where had he gotten these things?  
  
Fire damage blackened the documents around the edges but not the print. I ran a finger gently over the nearest chart and closed my eyes to focus sensory input to my fingertips. The fibers were too smooth. I continued toward the edge and opened my eyes when I felt the texture change. Manticore S.O.P (standard operating procedure) was to protect sensitive documents like this by spraying them with a molecular fixative. Short of an atomic bomb, nothing would destroy them.   
  
Two folders in particular stood out: one was marked 452 and the other was 494. Alec had crossed out the numbers and scrawled our names underneath. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. When we first met he'd hated using anything but those stupid designations as our names. I guess some old dogs can still learn.   
  
There were a lot of unanswered questions where Alec was concerned. Aside from owing me big time why did he choose this of all places to stay? Why did I let him get to me? Why couldn't I hate him like I pretended to? Why was I thinking about him so much? Why, why, why?  
  
I couldn't remember a time when he didn't rub my fur the wrong way, figuratively speaking of course. He was brash, rude, condescending, an all around pain in the ass I told OC one day.  
  
"Girl, both of you need to stop fronting and get it on", she had said. For the first time OC was mad at me.   
  
"But, I love Logan." I had tried to argue but even as I said it the feeling that usually came with it wasn't there. However I stuck to my guns, unloaded as they may be. "We're gonna beat this virus bitch and..."   
  
"And nothing. Saying you love Logan became an excuse and it's gotten you a shit-load of heartbreak and a lifetime of frustration that leaves you buzzing whenever something male goes by. Alec's not perfect. There's been more than one occasion I wanted to pop him myself but he's real."   
  
Thoroughly irritated with myself because she was right, I cut the memory off and flipped through my folder first, pausing only to shove more meat down my throat. I skimmed over the basic information and noticed that anything vital was encrypted with Manticore's special military language. If not for the hand-written notes scattered throughout the pages I would've thrown the folder across the room.  
  
Apparently Alec had cracked the code. I was able to decipher the first few pages by referring to them. To gain a foothold on serenity I sucked on the last piece of steak and read, passing over most of the technical mumbo jumbo.   
  
"452's genetic potential mapped. Subject's sequence appears to be malleable and devoid of the usual anomalies. Received authorization to initiate tryptophan control." That's how they knew I could be re-coded and the tryp shakes was something they added for shits and giggles, the bastards.  
  
And speaking of which, Normal's going to hiss a fit if I don't get that package delivered. Steak juice swam enticingly on the plate and I couldn't resist. I put the folder back on the table and bent down to lick the plate clean. Fine it wasn't lady-like or human-like for that matter but I never claimed to be either.   
  
"Isn't that a pretty sight," stopped me mid-lick.   
  
Embarrassed, I was reluctant to look up. My cheeks burned with a blush the crept down my neck and through my body. Usually I reacted very badly to being embarrassed and this was no exception. If you teased me, I returned it in spades. I plastered a seductively evil smile on my face and looked up.  
  
Alec was leaning against the threshold of his room arms folded across his bare nicely muscled chest. Four long white scars ran from his collarbone, crossed over his body and ended at his left hip. My blanket was wrapped firmly around his waist and his skin glistened with sweat. His dirty blonde hair shot off in haphazard spikes in different directions from his scalp. He seemed to be in better control of himself but I could tell he still burned with heat. That whole 'I'm an asshole' demeanor he was projecting was just a shield.   
  
An evil voice inside my head whispered - 'use his heat to your advantage'. Probably not the best course of action but I was getting tired of his attitude. To tell the absolute truth, I was getting tired of resisting. Never taking my eyes off him, I went back to licking the plate clean in slow lingering strokes and purred.  
  
The fleeting look of desperation turned his expression priceless, but he recovered instantly and turned the asshole mode up a notch. His eyes bled to gold as he wet his lips with a quick flick of his tongue and walked over arrogantly. I watched him drop to the ground and crawl over the table. In sort of push up motion he lowered his face next to mine and purred.  
  
Last night's dream returned in vivid detail and I became lost in it. I pulled back from the table into a sitting fetal position on the couch. Scenes flashed forward until the bass rumble in the dream resonated with Alec's. OC's comment at the end of my dream broke me out the trance. "Don't tell anyone, not even her." This time I was sure I said it out loud.  
  
"Come again?" He was kneeling next to me trying to look innocent.  
  
"Was it real?" Another image flashed as my eyes fell on his chest of my claws ripping up that smooth skin.  
  
He tensed when I reached down to trace one of the scars and stroked the soft baby fine hairs bordering it. The touch elicited another purr. He rocked back into a squat, out of touching distance and gave me a hard look. "I don't know what you're talking about," he lied.  
  
"Then you won't mind showing me your back." The bite in my dream would have left a scar also. I kicked off the couch, flipped over Alec and landed behind him before he had a chance to answer. A perfect imprint of teeth encircled the tip of his shoulder blade.   
  
It was the last piece of evidence I needed. My dream had been real! 


	3. Changing Hearts

Changes: Part Three  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).   
  
SUMMARY: Alec admits that her dream was real and it sets off a chain of events that forces Max realize whom she truly wants. M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiya@mauimail.com  
  
NOTES: My first attempt at a non - Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will.  
  
We weren't built with the idea that emotion was a good thing. At this moment I couldn't argue with them more. Counting slowly to ten never really appealed to me. However, like many things at this point, I was re-evaluating my position.   
  
Ten: anger was the first to surface. Nine: betrayal that OC had conspired with the 'enemy'. Eight: suspicion on Alec's part. Why the hell was he following me that day? Seven: surprise that he had let me take my rage out on him. He barely defended himself. Six: pain of loss. Logan's words still thundered in my ears. Five: back to anger that bordered on fury. Damn him! If he had really meant what he said, he wouldn't have said it. Four: resignation that it was over and it was time to live again.   
  
From three to one I vacillated between cursing Alec and taking to heart what OC had said. We had grown accustomed to snapping at each other. Did I want to upset the status quo?  
  
His shoulders slumped a little in defeat as he pushed to his feet. "We knew you'd make yourself forget," Alec began quietly and turned around.   
  
We were standing inches apart and my breath caught in my throat when I focused in on his face. Under the full force of those eyes I felt my body react to his heat and couldn't hide it. His nostrils flared slightly when my scent changed but he refrained from making a smart-ass comment.   
  
"You should have told me," I said and watched a similar gamut of emotions that I went through play across his face. Blue pupils swam up from solid yellow but held a wild edge. Okay, maybe we can talk rationally I thought and waited for an explanation.   
  
What was he debating over I wondered. I looked down briefly and noticed he kept opening and closing his hands nervously. Poor thing, confessing must be something Manticore didn't included in the training.   
  
To be honest I should have been paying more attention to the situation at hand. I was so caught up in mentally listing everything our lovely creators didn't include that I didn't realize Alec had closed the distance between us. Caught off guard I relied on pure instinct and backed away until I hit the far wall.   
  
He followed and pressed close careful not to touch. Static electricity seemed to flow from his body to mine. It was so hot; he was so hot. A gentle breeze raised goose bumps up and down my arms, bit along my spine and glided over my legs. It made me highly aware that I was in nothing but a fitted T-shirt and black cotton panties. My jeans lay forgotten under the couch.  
  
"Alec," I started but my mind went blank when Alec's face twisted up into a snarl. The tip of his tongue shot out and rested against his bottom teeth. He was taking in my scent through his mouth to taste it. I've done it a couple of times to enhance my perception of a person. Right at this moment I thought it was the sexist thing he'd ever done.   
  
No. No. No, don't give in, I told myself and brought my hands up to push him away, big mistake. Damp skin slid under my fingers and I had a sensory image of lapping up the salty edges of the scars I'd made. At my touch, his scent exploded into a myriad of overtones and washed over me like a tidal wave.   
  
I was drowning and couldn't breathe. Shaking my head frantically, I pushed him, flat handed so that my claws wouldn't draw blood. He wouldn't budge. In fact he leaned in and started up that damned purr of his. "Alec fight it, damn you!" I tried to say but all that escaped my lips was a whimper.  
  
Pissed, I should be pissed but it was getting difficult to concentrate. The way I figured it, I had two choices: fight or flight. My body chimed in with a third choice: knock him down and ride him till he screams.   
  
I was losing the battle.  
  
*****  
  
Decide! Decide, I chanted in my head as Alec wormed his way between my hands snuggling up against me. Our bodies touched in an unbroken line and I couldn't help but feel just how happy the contact was making him. Stuck between a wall and a hard Alec, things were going from worse to impossible.   
  
Abruptly he pulled back in a quick jerk of disbelief like someone waking up from bad dream. To Alec, self-control and sense of self were the two most important things to him. Heat was challenging him for both and I watched him struggle to reassert his hold on them.  
  
"NO!" he roared and dropped to his knees. Muscles in his back corded as his fists plunged over and over into the floor. The blows intensified, cracking the tiles, and left bloody impression of his knuckles on the surface.   
  
"Alec, stop it." Although wary to reestablish physical contact with him I knelt and captured his wrists. I remembered to sheath my claws before I dug my fingers into his tendons. Both fists unfurled in a wash of blood. Four half-moon wounds from where his claws bit adorned each palm.   
  
He regarded me with eyes as red as the blood on the floor and growled low in his throat. In one fluid motion, faster than the eye could see, Alec was on his feet and heading toward his bedroom with me still clinging to his wrists. Holding me nearly a foot off the ground didn't seem to slow him down much and I began to appreciate his raw strength.  
  
Two steps away from his bedroom door, I released my hold on his wrists, hit the ground running and barreled into him. Alec reclaimed some ground and drove his elbow between my shoulder blades. Sharp pain speared between my shoulders; I guess we were going for option one I thought wryly as I regained my breath.   
  
Adrenaline surged through my system as I shifted on command. Muscle temperature rose just before he threw a punch. The thermal imagery of my transformed eyes gave me a split second warning and I was able to avoid his next barrage.  
  
This sucked. I couldn't retaliate - it wasn't really his fault - and I couldn't keep dodging him forever. Six months ago he'd done the same thing for me but I wasn't about stand here and let him tear me apart. Switching from choice one (fight) to choice two (flight), I ducked under his last kick and swept his other leg from under him.  
  
Great move Max, I chided myself when I realized that he'd fall top of me. Again I had to admit that Manticore trained us well. I grabbed him by the elbow as he fell and dropped to the ground. My foot made solid contact with his stomach as I pulled on the arm. Kicking upward simultaneously, I threw him onto the remaining undamaged piece of furniture: the coffee table.   
  
While Alec flailed in a mess of paper and wood I darted into the bathroom. The door's lock was feeble but it would give me enough time to come up with a plan.   
  
The bathroom was plain and in bad need of a paint-job. Most of the ceiling tiles were gone, probably rotted away after years of neglect. Loose wires tangled around the steel cables that suspended the lighting figures high above the tub. The tub itself was huge and surprisingly clean, although the curtain crawled with mold.  
  
"MAX!" Alec's throaty roar cut through the budding plan forming in my mind. Suddenly the door splintered, metal braces groaning as Alec ripped the door right off its hinges. He flowed into the room in a wave of lust and violence and I was drowning again. If I let him get within touching distance, option three would become very viable.   
  
With Alec blocking the exit and the windows barred there was only one way out. I leapt straight up and landed on the rafters as softly as possible. They shook under the impact raining dust and bits of ceiling onto Alec. Some of the wires wrapped around my ankle. It gave me an idea.  
  
Down below Alec circled never taking his eyes off of me. "Come down and play," he taunted. Actually I was a little relieved. Talking meant that he could be reasoned with, I hoped. "You want me, I can smell it."  
  
He didn't know how right he was but I wasn't about to tell him that. I needed to neutralize him before I considered giving in to my body. Anything done while he was in this state of mind would be rape.  
  
No one deserved that, not even Alec and I realized with striking clarity that my previously elusive, nebulous feelings for him congealed. You know that fine line between hate and love? I was in danger of crossing it.  
  
But, first thing's first. I untangled the wire from my ankle and tied a slipknot on one end. Two strong throws opened it up into a noose. Holding the excess in my other hand I crouched waiting. When Alec passed under me I rolled off the beam and landed on his back.  
  
He lurched backward and pinned me against the wall so hard I almost lost my grip on his waist. Fighting for breath, I locked my ankles and held on tight. As I expected he made a grab for my waist. I had the noose tightly around his wrist but suffered a graze of those damn knives he had for claws on my rib cage. His free hand came around scoring the other side and I bound it with the remaining length of wire.   
  
By no means helpless, Alec threw he weight forward and dipped one shoulder with inhuman speed. Matching reflexes should have allowed me to remain on his back. Sweat and dust covered his skin in a thin layer making it impossibly slippery. The only reason why I had stayed on before was because Alec tried to make me one with the wall.   
  
The second I hit my vision burst into a kaleidoscope of colors. Cool porcelain caressed my back; I must have landed against the tub. Momentarily stunned and blinded there was no way I'd be able to defend myself if he decided to take me here and now but my other senses told me he was still in the room. In fact he was very close and I jumped involuntarily when I felt bare skin brush my calves.  
  
Here I was worried about raping him, it had never occurred to me that he might not be able to stop himself from doing the same to me. A flash of true fear cleared my vision, but my body continued to ignore my commands to move. Alec knelt between my legs his nostrils flared to catch the change in my scent. He bent at the waist hands still bound behind his back, and worked his way under my shirt.   
  
My scream was a mixture of pleasure, pain and surprise. I'm not sure which sensation was stronger as Alec kept running his tongue in long lingering passes over my wounds. He treated both sides in this manner before reemerging. The expression on his face was anti-climatic. Tears ran unchecked down his cheeks from very normal human eyes.  
  
  
  
"Don't...want...hurt," he ground out through gritted teeth and rubbed his fevered cheek against mine, down the line of my neck, then proceeded to lick the wounds above my left breast. One of his licks came dangerously close to my nipple and all logical thought escaped me. "Can't fight...any longer," he cried nipping his way to the nape of my neck.   
  
Feeling finally returned to my arms and legs. I could move and escape, run as far away as my mind screamed for me to. My body and heart told it to go to hell. Alec needed me, and not only for copulation.   
  
"You won't have to." I caught his chin and lifted him away from my neck. He turned into my hand, eyes closed and I kissed his tears away. With a shuddering sigh he opened his eyes and met my gaze. We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, leaving much unsaid.  
  
In that small span of time, Alec regained control and grew still. "I knew you wanted me," he said softly sat back onto his heels. A comment like that would have gotten him the ass-kicking of the century, but this time I let it slide, truth's truth.  
  
"Just don't let it go to your head, smart ass." Tucking my legs under me, I rose to my knees and grabbed the knot that fastened my blanket to his waist. Tugging gently I drew him back to his knees until we reconnected the line of our bodies that had been broken earlier.   
  
"Seems like something went to my 'head'" he laughed and ground his hips slightly. The old Alec had returned, sure and confident with attitude to spare.  
  
"You're such an ass," I growled and did what I've wanted to do ever since his heat started. Our first kiss was butterfly soft but sent a thrill through my body and I wanted more. Quick to oblige he parted my lips and deepened the kiss. Once our tongues touched I was lost.  
  
We explored each other's mouths thoroughly while I worked on his bonds. I wanted his hands on me so bad that I was having difficulty with the knot. He pulled away before I had a chance to free him and I lost my balance.  
  
"Patience, Max, patience," he chided, tone full of amusement as I landed face first into his crotch. My only regret was that the damn blanket was in the way. Maybe I can use it to my advantage. I rubbed my face on the inside of his thigh just brushing him. It was similar to cheek marking cats do and I was oh so feeling catlike.   
  
He went from relatively hard to rock solid and I was rewarded when he choked on his teasing. I took a quick peek at his face. Desire darkened his eyes to a hue somewhere between sapphire and midnight blue. Hungry was the only word I could think of that described the curious look he was giving me and it was contagious.  
  
Somehow he managed to free his hands and I found myself off the ground. "Hey..." I started to protest but found it hard to talk and kiss at the same time. We kissed our way to his room so engrossed in each other that we half fell half laid onto the bed.   
  
I was vaguely aware that the blanket had fallen away as we rolled around, taking turns on top. The feel of Alec's hands roving lightly over my skin drove me crazy. My senses attempted to drink in everything about him. From his scent to the way his muscles danced under my fingers, he was intoxicating.   
  
He broke away from my lips and I wanted to scream at him to come back. Then he left me alone and I wanted to cry. My mind struggled to understand his sudden change of mind until the room went completely dark. Oh right the curtains.   
  
There was a sensation of movement, an infinitesimal change in air pressure before the bed beside me sunk and he was back. Alec rolled onto my upper body and rose up onto his elbows so he could gaze at me with golden eyes. I flinched slightly when he brought both hands up to caress my cheeks and let my eyes shift so I could she him clearly. More tears ebbed their way down his face and fell onto my skin. Huh?  
  
"Max, I'm sorr..."  
  
"Shh, you have nothing to be sorry for," I soothed and wiped his tears away. "You were right. I want you," I said matter-of-factly but his tears didn't abate.  
  
"But you won't when my heat is done. You'll hate me," he said softly. The despair in his voice caused a mysterious lump in my throat and my heart ached to ease his fears.  
  
"How can I hate the one person who lets me beat them up? I named you and after careful consideration, I intend to keep you," I finished and stroked the small of his back. The smile he the spread across his face was breathtaking and I couldn't be surer of crossing that line than anything else, I loved him. "Now where were we..." 


	4. Changing Tides

Changes: Part Four  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).   
  
SUMMARY: Max panics after waking up from giving into Alec's heat but only because she thinks Normal will fire her for being late. What Max didn't realize was how close her heat was and they put Manticore's plan to the test. M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiya@mauimail.com  
  
NOTES: My first attempt at a non - Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will.  
  
Soft lips caressed my closed eyelids and drew me reluctantly back to consciousness. He proceeded to kiss the tip of my nose and I scrunched it in response. "For the love of...Alec, I finally find something, well someone, who counteracts my shark DNA and you go and wake me up."  
  
"Nap time's up Max." He rolled onto his back taking me with him. When his teeth grazed my earlobe all thoughts of protesting faded away. I pushed up to sit on top of his stomach and accidentally bumped his nightstand. The lamp suddenly came to life and my eyes watered from the brightness. As they adjusted, I caught sight of his alarm clock. "Oh shit!" I hissed and jumped off of him out of bed despite being stiff from an inordinate amount of muscle exertion.  
  
Frantically I searched his room for my clothes. My shirt, may it rest in pieces, was unsalvageable. Alec's claws had seemed like the most efficient way of undressing. In retrospect maybe it wasn't such a hot idea. "I'm getting fired for sure," I muttered under my breath and pulled my intact albeit claw punctured panties out from under the bed.  
  
"Max," Alec called softly and I looked up into tear filled eyes. Damn, I thought I was bad when my hormones were out of whack. He must've thought I was bolting. After a couple of quick glances about the room and I still couldn't spot my bra. "Max?" he called again.  
  
"Shh," I said and stood by his side of the bed. His pheromones intensified when I touched his cheek and purred. He gave me a watered down smirk and purred back. "I know I know, but you can afford to go in this late to work. As it stands I may lose my job even if I come up with an acceptable lie. I need to go." With a parting kiss I resumed my search for that elusive last piece.  
  
"Max."  
  
"What! What part of, I'm going to lose my job if I don't go, don't you understand?" I snapped not really meaning to take my frustration out on him. I felt even worse when he pointed up toward his defunct ceiling fan. "Oh," I sighed and collected my bra from the lowest hanging blade.   
  
I dressed in record time although my sides hurt like hell. My hair was another matter. Every knot I snagged with hasty strokes of my brush flashed images of how those knots came to be. One particularly strong flashback buckled my knees. I clutched the sink to avoid falling into a heap on the floor while an echo of the most intense orgasm I ever experienced racked through my body. Oh no.  
  
There could only be one explanation why something so simple as brushing my hair would cause that reaction. Well, I thought, now we'll find out if Manticore miscalculated again. Another rush of hormones announced the full onset of my heat and it took all I had to remain in the bathroom. The combined power of Alec's pheromones and the scent of our lovemaking on the breeze almost broke me.   
  
*Move soldier. Get out before...too late* Alec appeared at the doorway sniffing the air. Unable to think past the fact that he was naked, I allowed him to circle me. His scalding breath on the nape of my neck made me shiver. The second he fetched his body up against mine and burrowed his face into my hair something snapped inside. Instead of wanting to jump his bones at his touch, I was satisfied down to the core with this simple embrace. I felt that I'd finally come home.   
  
At the same time, Alec's pheromones dissipated. His heartbeat calmed until it beat in time with mine. We stayed like that for sometime, afraid if we let go we'd become sex-crazed demons again and silently thanking whatever god we chose to believe.   
  
"Stay with me," he whispered and it broke my heart to say no.  
  
"We've gone over this Alec," I disengaged from his embrace in full control of myself and made for the door. He had to blur to block my exit. "Get out of my way," I growled angrily.   
  
"No you can't!" he yelled.  
  
I set my pack back down on the floor preparing to fight my way out. "Why the hell not!"  
  
In a complete change of attitude he stepped aside and smiled. Confused I almost forgot my pack. Just as I was about to pass him by he called my name again. I paused to look over my shoulder waiting for him to finish. "Max," he repeated," Its Sunday."  
  
I'll be damned. Normal had the last laugh.  
  
*****  
  
Alec lay blissfully asleep in the middle of the bed curled up in my blanket and I was stuck being up for the rest of the day. Shark DNA really sucks; once I'm up, I remain that way. Maybe I should wake his ass up I thought staring jealously down at that angelic face. Then I remembered how long he had been in heat and relented. I was usually strung out from the hormonal overload from a single week. I didn't want to know what it felt like after almost three.  
  
Silently I closed the door behind me and surveyed what was left of Alec's apartment. Our little tiff transformed a bad mess into total chaos. Most of the couch stuffing had snowed over everything in the living room. Max, the transgenic snow shovel I grinned and foot-swept a path so I could move around without worrying about stepping on anything.   
  
I worked fast my body complaining the entire time. Every joint creaked from tight tendons. There were aches in muscles I wasn't aware existed. With each twist and turn, the new scabs on my sides cracked. As time went on I warmed up and moved more freely until I was able to blur.   
  
Two hours later the living room was once again livable. Dried blood still covered the broken floor and there wasn't a mop in sight. Although the coffee table was a lost cause, the Manticore reports and papers were stacked neatly on the floor. I gave up trying to determine which clothes were clean and which ones were dirty. They all ended up in a pile outside what was once the bathroom door.   
  
If I had known blurring while doing housework was this tiring, I would have done it ages ago. Pleasantly fatigued, I shed my sweat-stained clothes and snuck back into Alec's room. He didn't so much as twitch an eyelid when I crawled into bed and pulled him around me like a blanket.   
  
*****  
  
Masses of male bodies writhed around me and I couldn't get enough of them. A different mouth delivered each searing kiss and I didn't care. Alec materialized in the midst of all those bodies glowing eyes glaring balefully at them. "Mine," he growled and unsheathed his claws.   
  
His possessive statement sent a primal jolt of pleasure through my body and I knew it to be true. Not two seconds ago, any male touch would do. Now the thought of someone other than Alec touching me drove me to insanity. The next male who tried to lay a hand on me found himself on the receiving end of my claws. Another pair of not-Alec arms grabbed me from behind and I snap kicked backward sending the guy reeling back to the floor.  
  
"OW!"   
  
I spun around at Alec's shout but he wasn't in sight. In fact everyone had disappeared and the surrounding gray nothingness closed in. Caught between dreamland and reality I tossed and turned to free myself but succeeded in kicking us out of bed.   
  
"SHIT!" we cursed simultaneously. Gulping for air I opened my eyes into his frowning face.   
  
"You even dream about kicking my ass," he scoffed and guided my hands to said body part. "Now make it better."  
  
"This is amazing," I said out loud absently petting him. My dream was a typical 'in heat' dream but again touching the real thing only served to suppress my hormones. I was back in control.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
His response brought me back from my thought tangent. I smacked him lightly on one cheek. "Not what I meant and you know it. Don't you feel it?"  
  
Alec grinned so wide I thought his face would crack. I had to really concentrate to keep myself from doing the same thing. He wiggled his body playfully against mine. "I feel a all sorts of things Maxie. Can you be more specific?"  
  
"What do you want to do right now?" I ran my hands the length of his back and shifted him so I lay in the crook of his arm. My sides began to burn and his added weight was making it harder to breathe.   
  
His fingers drew gentle circles on my stomach. They travel up my centerline and down my free arm. He brought my hand to rest again his chest. "Touch and be touched, nothing more nothing less," he whispered, lips brushing my forehead as he spoke.   
  
"Even though we are supposed to be in heat," I stated more than asked. He nodded.  
  
"Like I told you, I was given a heat cycle to cancel yours out. It seems to have worked, just not in the way Manticore had anticipated. Miscalculation number-two. We have renew physical contact every so often through heat's duration for it to work." He detangled himself and pulled us to our feet. "C'mon. Your bleeding again and we both need a bath." 


	5. Changing Sides

Changes: Part Five  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).   
  
SUMMARY: Fluff warning. Max and Alec ride through their heat. Then it's back to work, business as usual. Or not? M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiya@mauimail.com  
  
NOTES: My first attempt at a non - Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will.  
  
Do you know how weird taking a bath is for me? I swear I'll never get used to the utter terror I feel when the water first slides over my skin. Yet, once I get past that first gut wrenching reaction, I'm hard put to leave. My genetic cocktail guaranteed my love/hate relationship with water. Cat and shark: what was Manticore thinking? Sheesh, I take the notion of catfish to a whole new level. Alec didn't seem phased and I tried to take heart in his relaxed state of mind.   
  
"They broke us from our aversion to water by extended periods in the tank, but that training was initiated a few years after your unit's escape." He laughed when I jumped at the sound of his voice. How did he do that?  
  
I tried to keep my voice even and failed. "W...what l...left field d...did that come from?" He tried to sink us further into the warm liquid and I had to swallow against the bile rising in my throat. No one gets seasick in tub especially me I told myself firmly and clawed the sides of the tub for purchase.   
  
Deft fingers peeled my hands from the sides of the tub and my claws sheathed instantly. It was a little frightening how they had become an everyday part of life. He massaged the color back to my whitened knuckles.   
  
"If you were any more tense, you'd vibrate the water right out of the tub." He gathered me up and held on tight whispering reassurances in my ear. I focused on the feel of his body the sound of his voice and was able to work through my panic attack. All at once I relaxed, my shark DNA taking over and I squirmed with delight.  
  
Teeth bit lightly into my shoulder and I realized with our close proximity that something was 'up'. Alec nuzzled his way up my neck and nibbled on my ear. "What happened to our heats being neutralized?" I asked and went as still as possible.  
  
"They are. I'm male Max. No matter what state of hormonal distress I may be in, a naked female body rubbing up against my body will make it 'hard' for me to not react. That and the fact that I love you increases..." he hesitated as if realizing what he just said.  
  
More water sloshed out of the tub as I shifted to my side and looked up at his stunned face. I could see his pulse beating in his throat and couldn't resist lapping the bead of water forming on his skin. His expression melted to apprehension. Was he expecting an ass kicking for telling he loved me?  
  
"Sorry Max, I shouldn't have..."   
  
Yep. I stole the rest of his apology with a quick kiss. "If you take it back, I'll forget I love you and definitely kick your delectable ass," I warned.  
  
There it is again. That smile is going to kill me one day. He lifted me higher onto his chest and delivered a different kind of kiss, slow and provocative. For the longest time he caressed my lips with his. A jolt of electricity seemed to erupt from that small connection. In the back of my mind I kept expecting a surge of hormones but all I could feel was a growing desire built on emotion. The difference between the two was I knew if I wanted to I could stop this. I didn't want to.   
  
In perfect unison our lips parted and we tasted one another. Our tongues slid together and we moaned. His hand cupped my face and I played with his barcode but our mouths never broke contact. Without missing a beat, he guided my arms around his neck, snaked an arm around my waist and stood. So much for the bath, I smiled into our kiss as Alec walked us back unerringly to his bedroom.  
  
Through the rest of the day and most of the night I fully appreciated our transgenic endurance and fortitude. I found another reason not to hate my shark DNA.  
  
*****  
  
With six hours of sleep under my belt, a record for sure, I woke clear minded and heat free for the time being. My pager did the buzz dance right off the end table. Oops did I leave that thing on silent? I caught a glimpse of the number flashing on the screen before it fell out of sight and thumped to the floor. OC must have gone nuts when she realized I hadn't come home. That girl knows my heat cycles better that me. She also knows how much I hate being paged. For her to page me meant her worry was borderline frenzy.   
  
*****flashback*****  
  
A small object sailed through the air just missing the top of OC's brown curls. It landed safely in a pile of clothes defiantly buzzing away. "Oh no, you just did not throw somethin' at your boo. Sugah, wassup? Break it down for Original Cindy," she ordered and patted the cushion next to her.  
  
"Logan." It was all I had to say as I flopped down and sulked.   
  
"What does roller-boy want now? I could have sworn you said 'no' the last dozen times." She poured me a cup of tea and doctored it with cream, lots of cream. "Shoulda got rid of that thing when you called it quits on Eyes-Only missions - of which I still should break my foot over your pretty li'l ass." She lightly slapped the backside of my head and reached for the sugar.   
  
Oh yeah, must have slipped my mind. Due to poor recon from a certain cyber journalist the intel mission I had been sent on went sideways. After a narrow escape from the supposed medical facility, I had to hideout in hostile territory for days with a couple rounds of buckshot littering my back. Those damn pellets were irritating more than anything but I couldn't reach them. When I got back OC gladly helped me remove them; she had not been gentle at all. In fact I think she reveled in making me wince, pay back for not letting her know that I was alive.   
  
*****end flashback*****  
  
To this day I still don't know why I kept it. Sentiment? Habit? Who knew? Now everyone used it to get in touch with me so getting rid of it was a moot point. I could swear that the buzzing was becoming angry. Alec's arms tightened reflexively around me when I tried to get out of bed; he was still out cold.  
  
Eventually I wormed my way free, his highness merely turned over. A few minutes of stretching and I wondered if I had been shortchanged in the transgenic healing department. Granted that there had been some unusually high activity lately but I felt like I'd been worked over by a platoon of X5's.  
  
The pager buzzed away under the bed. I bent down to retrieve it mindful of the seals Alec had insisted on applying before we fell asleep. According to the reports our saliva was equipped with a powerful coagulant he explained batting his perilously long lashes over guileless blue eyes. It was kind of gross if you ask me but it worked. Personally, I think he was marking his territory. I'm not sure how I felt about that.  
  
Deep in thought, I drew the curtains aside and watched the rest of Seattle wake to a new work-week. Relentless clouds kept the sun prisoner and shrouded the city in a dull gray veil. Usually I didn't notice the state of disrepair most of the buildings were in but coming down from a high, they looked depressing. An inexplicable sadness gripped my heart and I hugged against a coldness that had nothing to do with temperature. Call it sixth sense, call it what you will. Something was going down and soon.  
  
"Dollar for your touch," Alec purred in my ear.  
  
"Isn't that 'penny for your thoughts'?" I asked and ducked out of his way before he could pull me into his arms. I didn't want him to know how vulnerable I was feeling right now. I gave him a slap on the behind to lighten my mood. "There's your touch. Where's my dollar?"  
  
"And you call me a smart ass," he mumbled and stuck out his bottom lip. "You owe me a massage."   
  
Excuse me? Anger flashed and brought a blistering tirade to the tip of my tongue. "I just paid my tab, in full with interest, and you want...!" Holy shit! My jaw hit the ground mid-sentence as Alec started to stretch in the most catlike way possible. I take it back; this is the sexist thing he's done.   
  
Something vibrated in my hand and snapped me back from droolsville. Saved by the pager. "Oh my, look at the time. We're gonna be late." I left the room with his laughter ringing in my ears.  
  
Without too much distraction, I was dressed and bandaged up in no time. The seals still held but the extra pressure made them sturdier. With a final kiss goodbye, Alec headed off to work first. Showing up together work together would raise a few eyebrows; I wasn't ready for the third degree from OC just yet especially when I hadn't returned any of her pages. Besides I still had that last package to deliver.  
  
*****  
  
Jampony was hopping and the entrance was especially clogged this morning. Would it give me enough cover to slip in unnoticed? Probably not but I could dream, couldn't I? Paranoid? Not me. Never.  
  
Normal's 'Max is late' radar went off the instant I passed by dispatch and he homed in. "So missy miss decides to grace us with her presence. I suppose, since you're here, you got that signature from Saturday," he sniggered and adjusted his headset.  
  
Far be it for me to mention it, but I was late because he wanted that signature. I smiled sweetly and handed him my clipboard with the completed form. What I wanted to do was wipe that arrogant expression off his face with the bottom of my boot. Beyond Normal, Alec's blonde head popped out from behind his locker door. He made himself look busy while trying to watch us out of the corner of his eye.  
  
I had a few moments to watch him while Normal examined the form closely. His hands were moving in a structured manner. One passed across his face and touched his sternum. The other pumped twice in a closed fist. I've been out of Manticore so long I didn't recognize the hand signals at first. Halfway through the second repeat I got the message.   
  
'Status report'. After bridling slightly at the implied order, I realized he was asking if I was okay. I gave him the thumbs up signal and crossed my hands in front of my stomach, letting him know I was okay but my wounds still hurt like hell. Then I made like I was putting on gloves, just in time for Normal to catch me in the act.  
  
"Stop fidgeting," Normal ordered and gave my clipboard back with a brand new stack of tags. "These packages aren't going to deliver themselves," he added when I kept staring at them wide-eyed.  
  
"You have got to be kidding me. This will take forever." Okay I know I was whining but with the added activities of the weekend, I already felt like what the cat dragged in, pun intended. Extra duty was just rubbing salt in to the wounds.  
  
The cat that did drag me in was pulling on some fingerless riding gloves carefully over tightly taped bandages. Good, he got the message that we should hide all visible wounds to avoid questions.  
  
"Bip, bip!" Normal snapped. He was close enough that I couldn't focus completely on his face. The fine hairs on my neck roses like hackles. I took a deep breath and instantly regretted it, but it prevented the adrenaline rush. My eyes remained their regular smoky brown. Only Alec would have heard the growl vibrating in my throat.   
  
I turned on my heel sharply leaving Normal to his hollow threats of firing me if I failed to get any signatures. Luckily all the packages fit in my saddlebags. OC's bike was gone another lucky break. It would be a miracle if I could avoid her the entire day.   
  
Normal berated me the entire time and I got sick of it. I dug through my backpack and threw a small plastic container at him. That shut him up for a few seconds as he snatched it out of the air. Frowning, he looked from me to the thing in his palm, then back to me with a lost expression. I kept my face absolutely blank and got on my bicycle. The bandages on my sides pulled a little but they would have to get used to it. It was going to be a long day and not moving wasn't an option. Work bites.  
  
"Tic-Tacs are everyone's friend," I yelled over my shoulder and peddled out of there before he exploded.  
  
*****  
  
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my property," a gravely male voice grumbled before I could announce myself as a Jampony messenger. Instead of complaining about hearing that same stupid question through six deliveries, I seriously thought about busting down the door. I held my badge up to the peek-hole and waited; contemplating the variety of holes I could shove the package into.  
  
I was about to call in another no show when the door cracked open. The opening was no more than six inches apparently at the limit of the chain still connecting it to the wall. A young boy squeezed through and frowned up at me with eyes that put the ocean to shame. Fire-red hair framed his face in a froth of curls - the type that never looked neat no matter how much grooming was done.  
  
"Hey," I said gently and lowered myself so that he wouldn't have to look up so high. He couldn't be more than four and I didn't want to scare him. Oh what fun, my last delivery for this run and I get a pint-sized obstacle. He tipped his head to one side deepening his frown into a thoughtful scowl then gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen. It was contagious.  
  
Soon we were both laughing and neither of us had a clue why, but he introduced himself as Jake and called for his grandpa at the top of his lungs. Before I could back away he scrambled up my body and settled himself into my lap like he owned it. I stood, groaning as if his slight weight was a burden to carry, and made a silly face. He burst into a fit of giggles.  
  
"Comfy squirt?" I asked with amused sarcasm. Jake took me seriously and nodded enthusiastically, clinging to my back with surprising strength. Shrugging inwardly at his change in attitude, we waited for his grandpa to come to the door.  
  
Grandpa finally unchained the door and allowed us in. At least I thought so, but I walked right into a wall. The wall had fiercely intelligent, clear black eyes that regarded me with an uncomfortable intensity. Most people were taller than I was but he was huge, seven-eight or more. Not heavily muscled, but I could tell from the smoothness of his skin that there was more to him than just size. Potential muscle was deadlier and it spoke of combat training. He didn't look like anyone's father much less grandfather by any standards.   
  
"Grandpa, my eye," was out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Sometimes I was too much of a smart-ass for my own good. I smiled apologetically and tried to hand him Jake but the boy clung like an octopus. "Be a good boy and go to your grandpa," I whispered.  
  
"Actually it's Grandall. Jake hasn't been able to pronounce it right. We're working on that, right Jake," he said not the least bit ruffled by my hasty comment and pried the boy off me. Jake fussed and threw a fit. His wail steadily rose until great sobs shook his small frame. It was the sound of a broken heart.   
  
Grandall excused himself and took Jake to his room. The poor man had to duck fairly low to fit through the threshold. When the door bumped shut I released the breath I didn't realize I was holding. They were still within earshot though and between sobs Jake kept repeating the word 'mama'. Huh?  
  
I was almost to my patience limit when Grandall reemerged from the back room. "Sorry, Max. His mother disappeared about two weeks ago," he said in a hushed voice and opened the envelope I was delivering. "I believe you recognize this."   
  
It was an ordinary CD-ROM jewel case, nothing menacing there until I focused on the Manticore symbol plastered on the cover. Staring at the symbol made me realize that he called me by name.   
  
Shit! I made a break for the door, but Grandall beat me to the doorway. He moved with speed I never would have given him credit for. No one that big moves like that without being an X-something. Retreating backward, my brain kicked into overdrive, taking snapshots of my current surroundings. Huge, potentially lethal guy in front closed doors to the right and rear and barred windows.   
  
Going over his head was out. The smooth and solid ceiling had nothing to cling to. Grandall's face was absolutely unreadable as he approached. I felt the wall behind me and cursed. What had they said in combat school? Oh yeah, never back yourself into a corner. I may think about a refresher course if I survived this.   
  
There wasn't a chance in hell I'd win if he decided to take me out, but maybe I could bluff him into backing off. I went into a full threat display, complete with glowing eyes, flashing claws, and a sustained warning growl. The only things missing were laid-back ears and an arched back but I did settle into a deep defensive stance.   
  
Grandall stopped his advance and watched me for a moment. Hmm, maybe my bluff was working. Then again maybe he was simply debating whether to kill me slowly or to end my misery quickly. Cold sweat trickled down my spine and I fought to not twitch. What was he waiting for...backup?  
  
The doorbell went off overhead and sounded like a siren. Grandall smiled, actually smiled and went to the door. Holy shit, he *was* waiting for backup! Before Grandall could let whoever was at the door in, I bolted for the kitchen. Most people keep knives in the kitchen.  
  
"Come on in. You weren't kidding about this one," I heard him say as I huddled behind the stove with a pair of eight inch chef's knives. Their footsteps faded like they were moving away but I wasn't fooled by that old trick. Vibrations from their now silent footfalls shook the shelves nearby. A spice-laden cloud of dust tumbled from the top shelf and messed with my sense of smell but I could hear their heartbeats.   
  
They were very close, maybe a foot away from the service counter adjoining the stove. Something whizzed above and struck the shade rope. The heavy shade unrolled and darkened the kitchen considerably. Idiots, I saw even better in the dark with these eyes than in full light.  
  
Their thermal auras cast shadows in the hallway. Great, they were closer than I'd thought one on either side of the entrance to the kitchen. Assuming that the bigger aura was Grandall, I wasn't dumb enough to attack the biggest heat source like a moth to a flame. His partner's aura was considerably less, a better prospect for assault.   
  
It was a shot in the dark, so to speak, but I angled one knife carefully and threw it against the far wall. The handle struck first as planned and bounced toward the smaller aura. No shriek of pain followed to my disappointment but I heard muffled swearing; I'd come close.  
  
More whispering passed between the two; it was now or never. I held the remaining knife between my teeth and dove over the stove and counter into the living room. Unfortunately, in my haste I misjudged the distance to clear the coffee table.   
  
My ribs hit the edge and sent the solid oak table screaming across the wood floor. Warm liquid trickled down my belly as I fought the burning sensation in my lungs. At first I thought it was from the knife but it lay a few feet away. I must have reopened my wounds.   
  
Grandall rounded the corner, stopped the table's moment and picked it up one-handed. Now I was really up shit's creek. No oars, no boat no way out. Any minute I expected either a sound blow from the table or a flank attack from his partner.  
  
But I wasn't going to give up. A couple of deep breaths restored my ability to function; the pain, I ignored. An image flashed in my mind and I think my brain was deliberately not putting a name to it. My nose was not so kind and quickly established that a scent belonged to the image. My world shattered, shards of betrayal drove deep into my heart. I knew Grandall's partner; it was Alec. 


	6. Changing Again

Changes: Part Six  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).  
  
SUMMARY: Thinking Alec, now her mate, betrayed her to Manticore, Max runs for her life, nearly dies and is saved by Manticore or rather their recoding of her DNA. Faced with continuing changes they find out the real reason for the misunderstanding. M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiyamauimail.com  
  
NOTES: My first attempt at a non – Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will.  
  
An utter calmness fell upon me as I retreated back to that place in my mind where emotions couldn't hurt. A switch flipped and I was dragged out of my safe place. Consumed by anger borne of betrayal I put my shoulder behind my fist and drove it upward into his abdomen. I caught him before he flew backwards, claws ripping into his heavy leather jacket and punched him three more times. The speed of it amazed me but I didn't take time to revel in it; I was pissed to the nth degree.  
  
He weaseled his way out of my grasp and tackled me to the ground. We upended furniture as we rolled around trying to pummel each other. More to the point, I tried to beat the crap out of him while he scrambled to detain me. In the back of my mind I realized Grandall was missing but I had my hands full at the moment. Take care of one problem at a time, Max.  
  
Knuckles dug into my sides completely reopening the wounds and suddenly I was breathing acid. At the same time I embedded my claws into Alec's jacket lapels and hauled us to our feet. Upon touchdown I sent him sailing across the room and blurred to pin him against the wall. His neck fit neatly between my hands and I slowly let my claws pierce that smooth skin.  
  
"You sold me out!" My voice cracked. Cue the flood of tears. My brain kept insisting there was a logical explanation for this. My broken heart told it to go to hell.  
  
Alec seized both my wrists his claws resting against my skin in subtle threat. In response, my hands convulsed driving my claws deeper into his throat. If I had been calmer I would have seen the sheer reluctance he had for what happened next but that was a big if.  
  
I was set to tear out his throat but I had forgotten about his claws on my forearms. Their assault was fast, cutting deep before my brain commanded my hands to pull back. At first there was no pain just three long white lines speckled with red on each arm. As they filled in with blood raw nerve endings screamed along my skin.  
  
Hurt on multiple levels, I backed away and made for the door. Grandall appeared out of nowhere and blocked my way. 'How did someone that big move like that' I fumed. Fury drove away sadness, drying my tears, and I slashed violently at the living obstacle. Again if I was in my right mind, I would never have considered Grandall a target but my heart maintained control.  
  
A ripped coat and a nasty stumble was all I managed to accomplish with that unfocused assault. Unable to regain balance I crashed into the wall to the right of the door. Damaged by years of harsh weather and termites, the wall crumbled. Large wood pieces accompanied me to the hallway floor and blanketed every inch of my body with termite dust. Luckily the wood was too rotten to cause splinters.  
  
Dazed momentarily I cast glances about the hallway. Two figures stepped through the hole I just made. Actually they were running but my sense of spatial perception slowed their movements down. Their lips were moving their words lost to my thundering heartbeat. All I could hear was 'I love you, Max' mocking me. Then the camel's back broke.  
  
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I bellowed furiously. The last word drew out into a feline roar and I emptied my lungs. Brain functions narrowed down to animalistic reasoning.  
  
Hunted now, must flee  
  
Buildings moved out of my path and the ground flowed under my feet. Openings in fences presented themselves. The entire world seemed to rearrange to facilitate my escape. I blurred blindly not knowing where I was headed. It didn't matter because I didn't care. Only freedom mattered.  
  
Little by little my limbs grew heavy and I dropped into a normal run. Muscle spasms along my ribcage hedged my progress and I was forced to slow to a walk.  
  
Mate's deception unforgivable  
  
An imaginary fist tightened around my heart and ruptured the temporary emotional dam. I threw my head up and keened my sorrow to the world. Seagulls called rancorously from their nests in answering cries. Why, why, why...they seemed to say.  
  
SHUT UP!  
  
Waves pounded into the pier I was standing on. Startled out of my personal misery I finally took in my surroundings. Huge tree-like structures loomed overhead and pierced through the layer of fog rolling in from the harbor. Long since abandoned, the container cranes of the Port of Seattle were a sad reminder of the prosperity the region – the nation for that matter – once enjoyed.  
  
Over the sound of my labored breathing, I heard my name called on the wind.  
  
Blood, scent trail: foolish  
  
With little time or capacity to chastise my error in judgment, I snarled defiantly and made for one of the cranes. Alec rounded the corner and I scrambled up the access ladder, desperate to get to higher ground. Blood continued to cascade down my arm and I felt light-headed. A wave of nausea caught me unawares and I clutched the ladder so I wouldn't fall off. It shook under my grip and it took a few seconds for me to register that it wasn't vertigo that was causing the movement. Alec.  
  
I spared a moment to look down. Hand-over-hand, he ascended without using his legs and made short work of the distance between us. Adrenaline glands shifted into overdrive, overriding the nausea. Since my body knew what to do, I let it take over.  
  
He lunged; I dodged out of the way. I climbed higher; he followed. We wove in and out of the rusted beams that supported the loading boom not noticing the widening stress cracks spreading through the crane's foundation.  
  
At the very end of the boom one of the three-inch thick cables snapped and fell away stripping the threads of the large pulley. On its way down it slammed into the crane. The aging structure couldn't absorb the impact and buckled. We hit the deck seconds before the boom support structure lost integrity and held on for dear life. My heart and stomach bottomed out as the loading boom we clung to bent towards the ocean.  
  
We were spared from certain death when the tip of the boom splashed down in the ocean. It sent a bone-jarring shockwave throughout the entire structure. Already unstable from the cable, the structure finally gave up. Metallic whines announced the final collapse as steel girders fell like a card house around us. By dint of some small miracle, nothing hit the boom.  
  
Spoke too soon. With the support structure gone the boom was free to continue is original trajectory.  
  
Survival jeopardized, jump  
  
Again I obeyed my body without my brain conferring with it and dove off into the biting cold water. Not even the strongest sunlight could penetrate the murky depths and I swam blind. I broke surface for a much needed breath of air. Oh shit! Dive, dive I urged my tired, injured body as the boom crashed into the ocean.  
  
Water churned viciously making it harder to dodge the rest of the debris. Something hit my shoulder and my arm went numb. Another piece narrowly missed my face and I kicked desperately back to the surface.  
  
"MAX!" Alec screamed and caught my shirt.  
  
A deafening crack drowned out what he said next. Cables still attached to the pulley now deep under surface snapped taught. Bolts anchoring the cables down sheered off. Loose cables whipped around forcing Alec to take evasive action, which meant he had to let go of me.  
  
They settled down and began to sink into the water. Suddenly one jerked and wrapped around my ankle. Alec returned in time to catch my hand but he couldn't hold on to my wet skin. I stared into his horror filled eyes with the knowledge that I was going to die as I slipped out of his grasp and was pulled under the surface.  
  
How long does it take for a transgenic to drown? I thrashed against the pull on my leg but the pulley was too heavy. My tears salted the ocean and I despaired. My neck began to burn and I screamed my last defiance to an unfeeling dead ocean. Asphyxiation would soon set in as water filled my lungs.  
  
Relax, breathe now  
  
I blacked out before I realized my body was right...again.  
  
Heaven was made out of water? I opened my eyes and found I was surrounded by clear salt water. Glass and metal encased the water. Hey wait a minute, this isn't heaven; hell, I'm in hell where they keep you in your worst fear. I was in the tank.  
  
Panic pumped adrenaline through my aching body and I surged up and out of the top onto the adjoined platform. Then I was drowning...in the air. My lungs wouldn't expand and the burning sensation in my throat intensified. They must have placed the tank in a vacuum-sealed room but I couldn't focus. Everything appeared to be distorted as if I was looking at the world through bubbled glasses.  
  
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Grandall's voice grated behind me. Large hands wrenched my arms back painfully and locked the elbows just shy of breaking point. I tried to scream but you actually need to breathe for that. Blackness ate at the edges of my impaired vision. Chains clinked and I felt cold unyielding metal surround my wrists.  
  
"Sorry luv, but this if for your own good," Grandall whispered into my ear, fastened a weight belt around my waist and threw me back into the water. Without the use of my arms, kicking wasn't enough to keep me on the surface. The added weight was too much to bear and I sunk straight to the bottom.  
  
As soon as the water closed over my nose I stopped gasping for air. When I completely submerged, I could see. Confusion must have shown on my face because Grandall reappeared at the foot of the tank and he was laughing.  
  
Yep hell on Earth; I was back at Manticore, I just knew it.  
  
Sticking out my tongue at him was normally not my style but I didn't really have a choice. He laughed even harder and disappeared from view.  
  
I was effectively left alone with my thoughts. Anger, hurt, betrayal boiled to the surface and I flailed around the bottom of the tank shoulder mashing into the triple thick glass till I felt Alec's seals on my ribs crack. Blood clouded the water but I didn't care. I didn't want help from him. I had a lapse of sanity when I had taken his help at the pier.  
  
Damn why can't I just forget about him. That special smile he reserves only for me flashed in my mind. It was followed closely by a replay of our day together. Every caress burned into my skin every word etched into my heart, every kiss drank my soul.  
  
Fresh hot tears spilled into the water and I curled into a ball to try to ease the pain. I could hear a pulsating sound thrumming in time with my sobs. Gills, courtesy of my shark DNA. Another lovely gift from Manticore's tinkering.  
  
Three short, piercing sonic booms brought my attention to the front of the tank. Alec tapped three more times on the glass and the sound bounced of the glass and seemed to amplify ten fold. Furious I bellowed at him to stop and continued to curse him even after the excess air in my lungs ran out. Soon the glass started to vibrate the water bubbled out of the tank.  
  
Alec doubled up in pain and fell against the tank. His naked back was bleeding along the spine and a forgot my misery all together. Six fingernail-like plates about 3 inches square overlapped each other and covered his spine like armor. As soon as the glass stopped vibrating his body relaxed. Vibrations and his pain; was there a connection?  
  
Alec's back plates twitched seconds before Grandall reappeared in the room. Alec stiffened momentarily, but Grandall said something I couldn't make out and Alec forced himself to relax. By their body language I could tell that they were talking about me. Their movements became increasingly curt; now they were arguing. Grandall folded his arms across his chest and his face closed down. Alec shifted uncomfortably under that blank stare. When his shoulders sagged in reluctant submission, he faced the tank  
  
The look in his face sucker punched me in the gut and made me forget I should be 'spitting nails' mad. Liquid emerald pools captured my gaze and mesmerized the fight right out of me. He pressed his hand to the glass and thumbed a button I hadn't noticed earlier.  
  
"You may hate me, but I'm not giving up on you," his voice rumbled through the water from a hydro-speaker at the top. "Whether you remain in there is up to you. Agree to hear me out and we'll release you from the tank, continue to be unreasonable and I'll leave you in there with no choice but to listen."  
  
An ultimatum, how dare he! Okay, Max, play along now, escape later; I nodded and pointed my chin up.  
  
Another chain with a hook at the end lowered into the tank. It slithered down my back and snagged the weight belt. My nose broke surface and I immediately began to gag. By the time I was hoisted completely out of the water the need to breathe outweighed all common sense and struggled myself right off the hook.  
  
After a few terrifying moments of falling, Grandall caught the back of my shirt before I made an interesting impression on the ground. He set me on an old padded shipping pallet and swatted my back a couple of times.  
  
"Relax and they'll close. Your body will remember." Grandall stepped back and ushered Alec forward. He held my hair as I coughed buckets of water from my lungs. The gills sealed and I drew in a deep breath of fresh air. Two hard blinks helped me draw back the nictating membranes and I was able to see but my arms remained bound. Escape wasn't possible.  
  
Alec eased down to the ground in from of me and placed my face between his hands. I stared at his full lips afraid to meet his eyes lest he steal the rest of my anger away. Pride kept me from giving into the instinctive urge to snuggle in my mates embrace.  
  
"Max, please look at me," he pleaded thumbs stroking my cheeks insistently.  
  
Of their own volition my eyes flicked up to his. They were incredible really; sort of storm tossed sea combined with bejeweled flecks of amber and sapphire and they were leaking. "I. Did. Not. Sell. You. Out," he drawled out.  
  
The absolute truth held in those eyes was too much to bear. Relief crashed down upon the fragile lock I had on my emotions. I fell forward into the nape of his neck crying harder than I ever had in my life. Strong arms supported my sob-racked body. He rocked and murmured soothing noises until I was cried out. When I lay quite against his chest he began to speak.  
  
"I thought I'd lost you." His breath hitched and I felt moisture drip into a palm of my still-bound hands. Restrained cries escaped his throat his chest heaved as he struggled to calm down. I couldn't comfort him and my heart bled, so I did what I thought would be the next best thing; I purred.  
  
Alec's arms convulsed and his whole body went taut. For a brief moment I was fighting to breathe. Something poked my side seconds before a cloud of pheromones assaulted my senses. A puff of his breath hit the ultra- sensitive edges of my gill flaps at the junction of my jaw and throat and sent a jolt of pleasure that had possibilities. Well that was interesting.  
  
"Oh god. Don't do that again Max, not until I get a handle on this." He gulped down a huge amount of air breathing rhythmically. Little by little his scent returned to normal and his growing desire subsided.  
  
"Handle on what?" Now I was totally confused.  
  
"When you didn't resurface at the pier and I dove in after you but the water was too murky. I tried shifting but by that time you were at a depth where even that didn't help." He faltered the pain of that memory evident in his expressive eyes.  
  
"But you still found me," I prompted hoping to shake him from the past.  
  
"And I have Manticore to thank for that." Bitterness dripped from that statement. That could only mean one thing, a secondary mutation. Why not? I had one.  
  
"Your back?" I asked and he nodded.  
  
"Seismic detection plates amplify and transmit vibrations through my spine. I 'saw' you because your gills gave away your position."  
  
I got it now. I remembered reading from his file that his 'cocktail' had scorpion DNA. Since the harbor was essentially dead it hadn't been hard for him to pick my vibrations up. Purring is pure vibration; no wonder he reacted the way he did. The sensory overload must have been hard to sort and it translated to pleasure. A grin spread across my face. Definite possibilities.  
  
"You see, little spit fire, I was the one who provided Alec with those research notes, but they weren't complete," Grandall piped up and undid the shackles.  
  
Absently I rubbed feeling back into my wrists and half listened to Grandall's speech. Remnants of Alec seals sloughed off. I watched the white fluff float in the air and realized Grandall just got through telling me that I had agreed to meet with both of them to discuss the contents on that disk I delivered.  
  
"Hold it," I blurted out confused. "I agreed to meet with you? How the hell can I do that when I didn't know about the meeting?" Something was terribly wrong here.  
  
"You knew!" Alec accused hotly. "Stop pretending. Logan said he passed you my message a week ago. When I asked you this morning at Jam Pony if you were still with me for it, you said okay." He repeated the hand gestures he did a Jam Pony. "See."  
  
Oh no. Please let me not be wrong. This can't be some stupid misunderstanding. "That means 'status report'?" His face fell. Apparently it wasn't the answer he was looking for. Good ol' Max, I chided, react first think later. "Okay so I got the signals wrong but you know I would have bugged you about the reason for the meeting if I'd known about it."  
  
"You really didn't know. But then..." Suddenly Alec's face transformed. Passive hazel eyes gave way to angry red. Normally full lips stretched thin over bared teeth. His low menacing growl deepened his voice. "Logan lied!" 


	7. Changing Jobs

Changes: Part Seven  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).  
  
SUMMARY: Before they had a chance to figure out why Logan lied, the Seattle police arrive. Will Max and Alec escape almost certain arrest? M/A  
  
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to   
  
A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed and have patiently waited for me to update.  
  
Alec collapsed in on himself suddenly. He clawed deep furrows in the cement floor tossing his head from side to side. I watched him fight to control his breathing. He methodically drew in a long breath through his nose, held if till I thought he would pass out then blew out through clenched teeth.  
  
His searching eyes phased from red to orange to yellow yet it was clear he wasn't looking at anything specific. Grandall went into combat mode as soon as he recognized what Alec was doing. "He's imaging; seeing vibrations in his mind's eye. Something is coming our way."  
  
"Not something, but a unit of someone(s). We have five minutes tops," Alec said haltingly.  
  
Those someone(s) was getting closer. I could hear their footfalls now. Fear filled my belly like ice water. Grandall could pass for human, but Alec's back was a dead giveaway that he wasn't from Kansas and my injuries would be hard to explain.  
  
In the blink of an eye, I was shoved into a large shipping crate. Alec was crammed in seconds later and the lid nailed shut.  
  
"Jake is tucked safely away in a hidden chamber underneath this warehouse. The disc is with him. Watch over him until you spring me." Grandall's voice faded as if he was walking away.  
  
NO! Tears closed my throat tight. I didn't know him well but I recognized a good soul when I saw one. Holding Alec up with one arm, I pounded against the wall of the crate with my free fist. "Don't do this!"  
  
With a little effort, Alec used the crate for support and laid a hand on my fist to get me to stop. For half a second I fought him but he held fast and pulled me into a one-armed embrace. In desperate need of comfort I cheek rubbed his chest.  
  
"Shh, baby, I know, I know." he whispered into my hair, regret heavy in his voice. "Quiet now!" They were here.  
  
"FREEZE!" rang out and I cried harder. I could hear six sets of booted feet stomping along the catwalk I spotted above us earlier. "Hands were we can see them," that same voice commanded and clicking sounds of rounds being chambered turned my stomach.  
  
"Is there problem officer?" Grandall boomed back. High frequency whining followed his harmless question. Laser sights, shit!  
  
"You are under arrest."  
  
Double shit!  
  
The officer ran down a list of charges that included breaking and entering, willful destruction of government property and disturbing the peace.  
  
More footsteps. Two more men reported in. "Perimeter secure. Sir! There is no sign of the other one."  
  
Another man began to read Grandall his rights grunting in between phrases. In the middle of the right to an attorney he stopped and swore. "Sir we have a problem. The cuffs are too small."  
  
If it wasn't such a bad situation, that would have been funny, but somehow, I knew their next move. The six men were no longer on the catwalk. They stopped a short distance to left where I last tagged Grandall to be. Electrostatic humming filled the silence of the next few moments. Yep. Taser rods.  
  
Time seemed to drag out. Our combined body heat made the air stifling hot. We tried not to move but our wet clothes became more uncomfortable with the climbing temperature. Compounded scents of sweat, blood and saltwater hampered our breathing. If the brought in any land sharks, we were toast.  
  
Just when I thought I couldn't stand it any longer, Grandall was taken away and we were left alone in the warehouse. One punch popped the lid off the crate. Alec took point and led me out into the open after a quick double check of the warehouse. Our eyes had shifted during our stay in the crate.  
  
More and more our newfound abilities were becoming as automatic as breathing. It was a good thing too or else I would have never found the entrance to Jake's hiding place. Grandall's thermal signature lingered on a pile of shipping debris.  
  
I swept the debris away and uncovered a trap door. The padlock looked ordinary but it was too strong to rip off, transgenic strength notwithstanding. I looked to Alec and he shrugged; he didn't have a key either.  
  
Darn I knew I should have lifted that ankle pick set when I saw it at the pawnshop. My bra rubbed painfully again my wounded ribs and I had a sudden burst of inspiration. Two unsuccessful attempts later I had to ask Alec to help me take my bra off. My wrist wounds kept chafing against my shirt.  
  
His face brightened as he reached under my shirt. Mischief swam amongst desire but the gravity of the situation never left his gaze. He didn't bother with the snaps. A single claw sliced through the strap and instantly I felt better. Gently I pushed him away, confident I could do the rest.  
  
Lamenting the death of yet another piece of clothing, I hooked a claw into the seam at the bottom of each cup and ripped the under wire out. The ends were encased in plastic, which made them too thick to use as pick tools; I had to chew them off. Bending the pieces back and forth snapped them in half. Once the length was manageable, I inserted one end into the top of the keyhole and began to work in earnest.  
  
This lock was no ordinary lock. It had a false step. If the tumbler was tripped the wrong way, it forced me to start over. Alec crouched on the other side of the door fingering the hinges. I was about to begin my third attempt at cracking the lock when the hinges screamed and the door was lifted the wrong way. It bent against the padlock and forced me to rock back onto my heels. If I didn't love him, I would have killed him then and there. No really I would have.  
  
"Why the hell didn't you do that in the first place?" I yelled and tossed my dismembered bra at him.  
  
"Because the view is much more interesting now and I needed something to help me focus. The sensory input of my plates was getting a bit much," he fake-pouted.  
  
The mood lightened and I narrowed my eyes at him. Clever sonuvabitch. An errant smile broke through and ruined the chance of me scolding him further. He couldn't keep his eyes from lingering on my breasts. In a cold, wet white tank top, it looked like I was smuggling tic-tacs – poorly.  
  
Stairs led down into a small room barely ten feet cubed. Jake slept soundly on a nest of blankets despite all the noise made by his guardian's arrest. His head was pillowed by an overstuffed backpack, probably his clothes.  
  
Dark spots appeared before my eyes as if I had stared at the sun too long. Uh-oh, I must have lost more blood than I thought. Knots twisted in my stomach and bile crept up my throat. Alec didn't look any better. His tanned skin turned an odd shade of pale green and he slowly sunk to the ground at the bottom of the stairs. I joined him shortly, leaning slightly against his shoulder.  
  
"Hold on a little longer, Max. Help me close the trap door first," he urged and grabbed the handle fastened to the underside of the door. Still feeling nauseous, I uncurled from my spot on the floor and added my weight to the door. Our combined deadweight bent the stubborn metal back into place.  
  
We both needed a safe place to recuperate from our injuries and Jake's hidey-hole was just as good, if not better, that any. A broomstick bolted the door shut and we crawled over to the sleeping boy. I settled in the corner against the wall and peeled out of my clothes. Alec resealed my wounds and shed his wet jeans without so much as a lewd comment. It worried me at bit but if he felt has as bad as he looked, I couldn't blame him. I arranged his body so that he lay comfortably in my lap and sealed the edges of his plates.  
  
"That has possibilities," he smiled into my belly already half asleep. Tell me about it, I thought remembering his breath on the edges of my gill flaps. He covered us with a blanket and snuggled in.  
  
Jake stirred, his nose wrinkled in a classic scenting expression. He opened his ocean blue eyes cautiously and immediately turned his head towards us. "Granpa?" he asked sadly. Even though he had been asleep, Jake had known something was wrong. Huge tears fell silently down his cheeks.  
  
Poor kid. First his mom goes missing. Then he loses the one person he thought he could trust. Now he was stuck with two nearly complete strangers; I would cry too. "It's aiight, Squirt. C'mere."  
  
Blankets in tow, Jake crawled over to us. I nudged Alec over and rearranged our positions. The backpack was just within reach and I shoved it under Alec's head. I spooned up against him and rested my head in the hollow of his shoulder. Jake wrapped a blanket around his small frame and climbed in. His face pressed into my solar plexus and I held him while he cried.  
  
My body grew heavy as it shut down to repair the damage done. Alec and Jake were sound asleep and I cursed my brain for keeping me awake. I felt like I was swimming in a stormy sea. Nothing made sense: Logan lying but to what end did he hope to accomplish by doing that? When would our mutating stop? What information did that disc hold and how could it help our situation? How were we going to spring Grandall?  
  
Too many questions had me thinking in circles and every time I kept coming back to the same conclusion. We needed to pay Logan a visit and I cringed inwardly at that admission. Somehow I had to get him to help while preventing Alec from killing him.  
  
Speaking of killing, that is exactly what OC is going to do to me. Not returning her pages was one thing. Showing up what will probably be days later is entirely something else. And Normal? I might as well just kiss my job goodbye. Besides, I had a new job description right now; Max, the transgenic teddy bear, I mused as Alec's arm wrapped tighter around my waist. Jake cuddled closer as well and the sweet oblivion of sleep finally fell upon me. 


	8. Changing Directions

Changes: Part Eight

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).

SUMMARY: Find out the connection between Alec and Grandall but will Max find out more than she ever bargained for? M/A

FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed and have patiently waited for me to update.

The mirror was huge, ten maybe twelve feet in height. Its wood frame was stained to a rich dark burgundy red and gleamed with a recent layer of conditioning oil. I took note of the décor of the room and wondered where the hell I was. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling; the shelves done up in the same wood as the mirror frame. Posh furniture done in black leather offset the wood nicely.

Something shimmered out of the corner of my eye and I turned back to the mirror, but my reflection wasn't there. In fact nothing of the room could be seen; only an eerily familiar white room. Images of people appeared out of nowhere. They were reaching towards me, mouths working. 'Help us!' they cried as their hands pierced through the surface into my reality.

And I was rooted to the floor…

Someone shook me awake before the dream could get any worse. My eyes fluttered reluctantly then opened to mere slits. Alec sat on his heels and brushed stray hairs from my face. "Morning, sunshine," he said against my skin his butterfly kisses caressed my forehead. I groaned and closed my eyes wanting nothing better than to get back to sleep. He had no business being so chipper with so much crap going on.

Soft, expert lips brushed mine in silent demand and before I knew it I was breathless. Thrills went down my spine and my lower abdomen quivered. When he pulled away I opened my eyes to see him standing with his hand out. "I hate you," I grumbled playfully and climbed out of the blankets, completely ignoring his offer.

Every muscle felt stiff from inactivity, but my wounds were reduced to fresh pink scars. From the degree of healing, we had been asleep for three or four days. Holy shit! Any number of things could have happened to Grandall. We had to get back to Alec's apartment and start planning.

Soft plush carpet crushed underfoot and a voice at the back of my mind kept trying to tell me something but I was caught up in my thoughts. I started to look around for my clothes and suddenly that voice was very clear. We weren't in Jake's hidey-hole.

The rational part of my brain felt that if Alec was calm then there was a perfectly good explanation for our current situation. However, it was a small part and took a backseat to the irrational panic. I grabbed Alec's hand and blurred toward the door regardless of my state of undress. Survival first. Modesty later.

Alec must have realized where I was taking him and stopped dead in his tracks. I lost my grip on his hand and hesitated a moment before continuing on to the door. He was a big boy; he could take care of himself. In that small moment of distraction the door flew open and I ran straight into Grandall. Quickly I dropped all fours and ducked under his legs as he made a grab for my arm.

Since I didn't know the size or layout of the joint I slowed to run. The hallway looked ordinary enough but I didn't have the luxury of time to examine the woodwork. Lights triggered by unseen sensors flashed to life as I ran by. There were no windows but a slash of sunlight caught my eye. It poured in from the only open door at end of the hallway. There was hope yet.

It was the same room of my dream from the walls lined with books right down to the posh furniture. The room-dominating mirror was blissfully absent. In its place were three large picture windows. A meadow stretched out in front of them. An occasional flower covered bush popped up from the green grass adding a bit of color. High mountain cliffs rose up at the meadow's horizon and curled in towards the room as if the entire building sat in a crater. I was so caught up in the spectacle of it all that I didn't notice Alec and Grandall enter the room until they were right behind me.

They made no move to contain me and I began to lose the edge of panic. In fact they were smiling, sharing some private joke between them. Money passed from Grandall's hand to Alec's and I was thoroughly lost. "What? How? When? Where?" I stammered repeatedly unable to complete a single question.

After the third round Alec chimed in. "You forgot, who and why," he said cheekily and chuckled until it held the edge of his bass purr.

My body started to relax. Nope, not happening pretty boy. I wanted answers before calm and I'll be damned if Alec was going to steal that away from me. Pitching my growl as low as I could muster, I turned my confusion to anger and let him know it.

Undaunted, Alec half-turned away from me and upped his tempo. I stopped growling for a split second and I couldn't hide it from him. He gave Grandall thumbs up and a few hand-signals I didn't recognize. Arrogant bastard I thought but my anger seeped away and I wound up returning both his purr and his smile. Hopeless, whipped, but true.

" 'What?' After realizing their error, Seattle's finest released me. 'How?' The crane, not government property mind you, was scheduled to be demolished by it's owner, me," Grandall explained. "Whoever hacked into my files was good but I deliberately set up files to mislead cyber-pirates. The dormant worm I planted in the hacked files should have activated once their virus programs scans it." He broke down into rumbling laugher until tears squeezed out the corner of his eyes.

"They released me about 2 hours after they figured out they couldn't hold me. I came for you folks after I was certain I wasn't being followed and brought you here for a few days R&R. That takes care of your 'when'." Grandall motioned us to sit so he could continue.

The world suddenly felt less solid and I sat down on the couch in front of me only to jump right back up. The leather was cold and only now I noticed I didn't have a thing on. Two guards wandered into view outside the first picture window and stared open-jawed at me, yet I made no move to cover my nakedness. First I didn't have anything to do just that and second I was still disoriented.

Grandall circled around and drew down the shades. He was laughing so hard he nearly snapped the cord he was tugging on. Alec, also laughing, stepped forward and wrapped me up in a soft blanket. His scent covered every inch of it and I couldn't help but snuggle into the familiar warmth. We arranged ourselves comfortably on the couch and waited for Grandall to continue.

"We are in the center of an extinct volcano. Everything you see belongs to me." He walked the entire circuit of the room and ended up sitting behind his desk.

"But you're an X5. I'm sure of it," I said louder than I meant to, accidentally interrupting him. He was obviously in charge, not hired muscle. Again I took in my surrounds and my mind couldn't put it together. What was an X5 doing in digs better than Logan's?

Grandall's face broke into a wide smile that affirmed my conclusion. "As X5-691, I was assigned infiltrate and watchdog one of Manticore's most wealthy yet most questionable financial backers. The company needed a new CFO. Guess who just happened to show up with the right credentials, of course.

Well the whole mission ran smoothly. I should have known something was wrong. Everything was easy, too easy and the head honcho caught me. He pulled me into this very office where I was sure a bullet with my designation on it was waiting."

As Grandall continued on my mind began to paint a picture of what had happened. Phantom images appeared. The former CEO sat in Grandall's place. As described, he was a spry old man, roughly in his 70s. He had steel gray eyes and there was nothing in his entire demeanor that said mercy.

A slightly younger version of Grandall appeared beside us. He was bound in shackles similar to the one's used on me at the warehouse. Faceless guards stood behind him armed with tazer rods.

"What is your designation?" the CEO asked, his querulous voice carried well in the large room. Grandall stood in stony silence and the man laughed. "Come now, I know what you are and who sent you. Has Manticore decided to cauterize this old wound?"

He rose from the desk to stand in front of Grandall. "On your knees," one of the guards barked holding the tazer dangerously close to Grandall's neck.

Grudgingly Grandall complied. The CEO walked around to his back and Grandall knew this was it. He had been expecting the searing hot sensation of a bullet entering his body but when cool fingers touched his barcode, Grandall flinched.

"Ah. X5-691." The CEO strode back to his desk and leaned back into it. "How well do you know your keepers?"

"Sir?" Surprised that the man could read barcode, Grandall gave the only response he could think of. "They feed and house this unit. Duty, Mission, Discipline are a X5s only concerns."

All the images disappeared and I was pulled back in the present. Grandall finished by explaining how the CEO broke his conditioning and made him realize there was so much more than Manticore who had written him off as MIA and irretrievable.

"He groomed me to replace him, even gave me his name but his real agenda wasn't clear until just before he died. He was aiming to take down Manticore." Grandall looked our way but not at me.

"That's when I was sent in," Alec chimed in and got up to lean again the desk much like the old CEO had in my mind. "Simple wet work mission. Get it, take out the target," he aimed a thumb at Grandall, "and get out."

"Wait, wait. He was your target? That's not exactly a relationship building point." I was getting a headache.

"No but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Spare his life and I get to keep mine in return." Alec and Grandall shared a laugh but I was still confused.

And then it hit me. "Your side 'missions'. Grandall offered to be your outside contact," I said rubbing my temples. "In turn you fed him Manticore information.

Well, I suppose that takes care of 'who', but 'why'? Why didn't you tell me all this before? Especially you," I pointed at Alec and a look passed over his face. It said that I wasn't going to like what he was about to tell me next.

Alec sighed and pushed off the desk. "Before we started to mutate, I thought you hated me. Every time you opened your mouth it was to tell me to shut mine or that I was a screw up or any number of insults you could think of."

"Oh." He sounded petulant but I guess I couldn't blame him. I did ride his ass pretty hard. I stood to meet him halfway and lay my head upon his shoulder. "And now," I mumbled into his collar.

"Now? Now is different," he murmured into my hair. "Manticore was forced to regroup at other facilities after they had burned the Seattle facility down. Grandall had operatives in each one. That's how we got those research notes. Our recoding wasn't done in Seattle but in Canada."

Canada? Oh no. Logan had been shipping transgenic refugees off to Canadian destinations. Had we accidentally sent them into the lion's den? Nah, Logan was on our side. He would have made sure they were safe.

"Jake's mom, Sam, had infiltrated the facility at White Rock and had been smuggling information to me up until three weeks ago. Her last broadcast was to tell me about this disk and haven't heard anything from her since." Grandall tapped away at his keyboard.

Right on cue, Jake burst in holding a picture frame. He was hyperactively excited and insinuated his small body between Alec and me. The corners of the frame were sharp and banged painfully into my legs. Alec hauled the boy up into his arms arrested the frames movement. He gently pried it out of Jake's hands to get a better look and set him down.

Alec let go of my arm so fast I stumbled and tripped on the edge of my blanket. He was transfixed to the picture and completely missed my glare of death. Jake helped himself to my recently made available lap. He snuggled in and giggled at the man in front of us. "Mama," he nodded patting my leg. Was he calling me his mother?

Clouds thickened in the sky quickly cutting off the sun. The air cooled, and I suddenly felt uneasy. I had a funny feeling things were going to get strange. As the rain started to beat down with a vengeance, Alec flipped the picture around and I was staring straight at myself. I hate it when I'm right.

Deep lines were burned into the cherry wood frame, barcode lines. X5-453. I have a twin? Why didn't that surprise me? Manticore must have done that with the entire '09 batch. No wonder Jake was confused.

A woman appeared at the door hands on hips. Her hair had pulled from its band in several places and she didn't look as if this was a social call. The annoyance blazed in her gray eyes as her gaze never wavered from the boy in my lap.

Jake had the temerity to giggle but he did get up after pecking my cheek and took hold of the woman's outstretched hand. She closed the door behind them but I could still hear Jake chattering away completely oblivious to the woman's admonitions.

Soft cursing broke my concentration. Grandall scowled as he continued to type furiously. Another stream of curses, this time in different languages, drew me from the floor. With Alec on my heels, we made our way to Grandall's side to see what all the fuss was about.

Nothing on the screen was legible. Symbols popped up randomly like an old screen saver. The command line blinked steadily at the bottom. It seemed to be annoying Grandall the most. As he began to type, the command line disappeared. Ah, now I saw the problem. He couldn't begin to decrypt the disk because he couldn't see if he was getting anywhere.

"Did Sam say anything about this?" I asked and shook my head. An intermittent high-pitched whine emanated from the disk drive and drove into my skull like an ice pick. I had to press the back of my ears to ease the pain. Grandall was too busy restraining himself from pounding the keyboard into bits but Alec's face pulled into a wince. He too kept shaking his head but instead of his ears, he kneaded the base of his neck where one of his plates peeked out of his shirt collar.

We were given only a few seconds reprieve before it started up again. Through the pain I tried to figure out some sort of pattern, yet with each cycle the tempo seemed to double. Alec clutched the edge of Grandall's desk until his knuckled turned white. Two tears rolled down his cheeks his entire face a mask of agonizing pain.

"STOP IT!" he cried out and brought his fists down on the desk with enough force to set everything, except the monitor to bouncing.

I'm not sure if it was the added pain in his hands that helped, but Alec straightened up slowly. His brow smoothed out and he took in deep breaths through his nose. When he opened his eyes, they were alert and focused. My blood ran suddenly cold. He was using Manticore distancing exercises. Was I going to lose my Alec to 494?

"Code, Morse code," he said tightly. Although his words were clipped, I relaxed. There was a hint of Alec in that tone. Two more cycles and he had the translation. "Form. Shift. Reveal." Before I could get him to clarify, his eyes bled to yellow his claws unsheathed and bit into the desk.

As soon as I followed Alec's lead I had an entirely different view of the computer screen. Sam had left decrypting instructions but they weren't visible to regular transgenic sight. Our enhanced 'cat-vision' allowed us to see different color spectrums as well as thermal differences. The instructions glowed black but they were riddles.

Arms wrapped around my waist and Alec's comfortable weight against my back dulled the pain in my head. He rubbed his cheek against mine and rested his chin on my shoulder to view the screen as well. The first riddle read: Silence reigns when Bobtails ornaments ring. Maybe our twins were crazy after all.

A distant memory surfaced. It was my first winter in Original Cindy's apartment, December I believe, late December. Strings of what looked like metallic fur lined all the windows and cupboards. O.C. was in the kitchen cooking breakfast singing a song that made no sense whatsoever: Jingle Bells.

"Bells!" I blurted out. "Type bells," I urged Grandall. The moment he pressed 'Enter' the ultrasonic Morse code ceased. Blessed silence and Alec whispered 'about friggin' time' in my ear. I grinned and wholeheartedly agreed with him.

On to the next riddle: Bake me for a blue furred monster or a Hacker's band-aid to end at the start. Even reading it out loud, I couldn't wrap my mind around it. My head pounded and I didn't want to think anymore. I didn't have to.

"That's one of the oldest hacker counter hacks. Type in cookie," Alec chuckled and cuddled me further. Good thing for him he sheathed his claws beforehand. He would have sliced clean through the blanket.

"Didn't I tell you I wasn't your touchstone?" I teased.

"Do tell. Isn't this where you tell me you are going to kick my ass?" he retorted.

"If you two are quite done, I believe I'm in," Grandall sighed and completed his decryption program.

They all watched it run smoothly thorough every failsafe and the screen faded into focus. Sam appeared and she looked frightened. I could see cleaning supplies in the background like she was in a storage closet. Loud pounding sounded out and that earlier bad feeling I had got worse.

"Open up 453, we know you're in there!" a guard shouted.

"I don't have much time," Sam began. "I've already sent you the message that this disk is coming your way but it has nothing to do with Max or Alec's changes. Since the 09' escape Manticore has been working with an outside entity for their retrieval. When Seattle facility was burnt to the ground, they enlisted this entity's help as well. All those found by this entity were shipped off to Yellowknife, Canada as punishment."

She spun around suddenly. The door was cracking and she pulled a few shelves down to give her some more time. When she returned tears streamed down her cheeks. "I recorded a few of their transmissions to this entity…" The doors exploded behind her and Sam started to hide her equipment. "The recordings will play once I'm done. Tell Jake I love him." The screen went black once more and Alec was rocking me. I didn't even realize I had been crying until he wiped the tears from my cheeks.

Grandall rose from his chair to give us a better view of the screen. It faded in and a brown-haired man I didn't know walked into view. He sat down in front of a large screen, waiting for his contact to call I supposed.

The screen came to life but the room in the background was too dark. I could make out a dark shadow of what I thought was another man similarly seated at a desk or table. The shadow rose and I could make out a soft whirring sound. It was familiar but I couldn't place my finger on it.

"Greetings." The man in the office spoke very formally. He smiled and chills ran down my spine. He seemed very pleased with himself. "I understand we've acquired something rather special."

"Yes. Ray should give you plenty of information on how the breeding cult works," the man onscreen said and stepped into the light. "Max was very helpful. I want to thank you, by the way, for coming up with that virus thing. Associating with her is bad enough." Logan sneered.

I could feel Alec and hear him; he was yelling at Grandall to shut it off but I couldn't speak. I stared at the now blank screen blinking slowly. I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on. They say the brain will shut down in order to protect itself from insanity. Mine wasn't so kind.

At first the images came slowly. My B&E into Foggle Tower, the countless times we almost got closer during that first year of dancing around each other. Then the memories pounded into my head and I closed my eyes against them.

All this time he had been working with Manticore. His acceptance that I was a government project and his willingness to help me and mine out, all made sense now. Getting me to fall in love with him: that was his sick little twist. And with that thought I was thrust into the insanity my brain had been trying to protect me from.

The purest hate I had ever felt grabbed a hold of my heart and squeezed. I had to fight to breathe and when I could it was to scream, long and loud. The world went red and my claws sprang into view.

Alec and Grandall wisely stayed back while I raged through the room. I sent the couch crashing into the desk and worried the leather. It sounded so much like flesh tearing I became incensed and tore until I had eviscerated all the stuffing.

More images came. Fixit, Ralf, Bugle, Zack, Tinga's boy and husband: all those people Logan supposedly sent to a better place in Canada, they were now suffering and I was too blind to stop it. Why didn't I see it? "WHY!" I howled and threw an end table across the room with such force it didn't just break it exploded.

"WHY!"

Suddenly I felt as if the walls were closing in on me. I had just enough of me left to hear Alec yell 'Max don't' before I slashed through the middle picture window and ran.

My naked body did not come through the window unscathed. Blood mixed in with the rain as it beat down upon me. My lungs screamed for air and my legs began to burn but I couldn't stop. I had to get away from all the pain and pushed on.

About halfway through the meadow I tripped over a low-lying bush and skidded a few feet. Stunned I lay there and the grief finally caught up with me. I curled into a tight ball, hugging myself tightly against the wound in my heart. Hot tears streamed across my face. By the time Alec caught up with me I was crying harder than I had been the first time he had seen me like this.

I didn't fight him when he gathered me in his arms. I had nothing left to fight with. I clung to him, to my mate the only solid thing left in my world and cried.

"We'll get them back," Alec promised and carried me back into Grandall's mansion.


End file.
